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LIVES 



THE TWELVE APOSTLES, 

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED 

A LIFE OF 

JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



F. W. P. GREENWOOD. 
M 



[Republished from the Third Edition by request of the " Ladies' Commission 
on Sunday-School Books."] 




BOSTON: 

AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. 

1868. 









111 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by the 
AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION, 
the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts 



University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 

Cambridge. 



PREFACE 

TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



The present edition of the " Lives of the 
Twelve Apostles " will, it is hoped, be found an 
improvement on the first. The work has been 
considerably enlarged, and its form has, in some 
respects, been changed. A Life of John the 
Baptist is now prefixed to the other lives, and a 
Life of the Apostle Matthias is added at the 
close. The Notes, which, in the first edition, 
were printed at the end of the volume, have 
either been incorporated with the text, or printed 
in their several places as foot-notes. Authorities 
have been reconsulted, and critical conclusions 
reconsidered. 

It has been suggested to the author, from more 
than one respected source, that lives of Saint 
Paul, and of the Evangelists Mark and Luke, 
would be a desirable addition to the biographies 



IV PEEFACE. 

of the Apostolic Twelve. But he has been fear 
ful of injuring thereby the unity of his group, — 
that group which immediately surrounded our 
Lord, and whose lives are connected with his 
in the Gospel accounts ; and he has therefore 
thought it more advisable to limit himself to the 
insertion of a life of the great Forerunner, which 
properly precedes the other histories. 

In the Notes to the first edition, the author 
had named the days on which the Apostles are 
severally commemorated in the Western Church, 
and had also given the Collects, or short, com- 
prehensive prayers, which are appropriated to 
those days in the Liturgy of the Church of 
England. To those Collects he has now sub- 
joined some pieces of selected poetry, chiefly 
from late works of Bishop Mant and of Keble, 
with a view of increasing the religious impression 
of the volume, and adding somewhat of a devo- 
tional to its scriptural and biographical character. 
They who do not attach any peculiar sacredness 
to the days which are set apart to the Apostles 
and Saints by some churches may yet have their 
affections profitably engaged, at any convenient 
periods, by a devotional application of those lives 



PEEFACE. V 

and examples which have been bequeathed to 
the Church universal. 

The same sentiments of affection, respect, and 
duty which prompted the author to dedicate the 
first edition of these " Lives " to " The Mem- 
bers of the Society worshipping at King's 
Chapel " induce him to inscribe the volume in 
its present form to the same friends, with the 
hope that it may prove more deserving than be- 
fore of their acceptance and approbation. 

Francis W. P. Greenwood. 

October 4, 1835. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Life of John the Baptist 1 

Lives of the Apostles. — The Twelve .... 27 

Simon Peter 39 

Andrew 73 

James the Greater 79 

John 91 

Philip 109 

Bartholomew . . . 114 

Thomas 120 

Matthew 135 

James the Less 146 

Jude 158 

Simon Zelotes 163 

Judas Iscariot . . 165 

Matthias 184 

Concluding Remarks 188 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

The order of names which follows differs from that of the above list, and is the 
order in which the days occur in the calendar. 

Saint Andrew's day, November 30 203 

Saint Thomas's day, December 21 . . . ^ . . . 205 



Yin 



CONTENTS. 



Saint John the Evangelist's day, December 27 

Saint Matthias's day, February 24 . 

Saint Philip and Saint James's day, May 1 

Saint John the Baptist's Day, June 24 . 

Saint Peter's day, June 29 . 

Saint James's day, July 26 ... 

Saint Bartholomew's day, August 24 . 

Saint Matthew's day, September 21 

Saint Simon and Saint Jude's day, October 28 



207 
210 
212 
214 
216 
221 
223 
225 
230 



LIFE 



JOHN THE BAPTIST 



As John the Baptist presented himself to his 
countrymen as the herald and precursor of Jesus, 
and was acknowledged by Jesus to be so, and 
as his history is remarkably connected with the 
early part of the history of our Lord, the notices 
which are given of him in the Scriptures possess 
unusual interest. It is my purpose to examine 
these notices in their order, so as to present, as 
far as the materials will permit, a continuous 
view of his life. This life will naturally precede 
the lives of those who were afterwards sent by the 
Messiah to publish his laws and doctrines, as John 
was sent from above to be his harbinger. 

In the first chapter of Luke's Gospel, we have 
an account of the particulars attending the birth 
of the Baptist. His father was a priest by the 
name of Zacharias ; and his mother, whose name 
was Elizabeth, " was of the daughters of Aaron " ; 
so that he was by birth of the order of priesthood, 
and on the side of both father and mother, of 

1 A 



2 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

sacerdotal descent. He was the child of their 
old age. His father Zacharias was, as is said 
by the Evangelist, " of the course of Abia." To 
understand this expression, we must recur to the 
fact, stated in the First Book of Chronicles, that 
David divided the descendants of Aaron into 
twenty-four orders, named after the chief men 
among them, who should attend to the service of 
the temple in rotation. The eighth of these 
orders, or courses, was that of Abijah, or Abia, 
and the one to which Zacharias belonged. 

What was more honorable to the parents of 
John than their official and hereditary sanctity, 
they were really holy and virtuous people. " They 
were both righteous before God, walking in all 
the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, 
blameless." No parentage could be more fit for 
the forerunner of the holy Jesus. 

As Zacharias was officiating in the temple in 
his turn, or " in the order of his course," an 
angel appeared to him, predicted the birth of his 
son, and declared that his name should be John, 
which means, in the Hebrew language, the gift 
or grace of God. He added that his birth would 
be the cause of rejoicing to many ; that he would 
be " great in the sight of the Lord " ; that he 
would be singularly abstemious, and " filled with 
the Holy Spirit " ; and that he should go before 
the Lord " in the spirit and power of Elias." It 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 3 

was a general expectation among the Jews, that 
the prophet Elias, or Elijah, was to reappear on 
earth in person, to announce the arrival of the 
Messiah ; and this expectation was founded on 
one or two passages of the Book of Malachi, such 
as, " Behold I will send my messenger, and he 
shall prepare the way before me " ; and still more 
explicitly, " Behold I will send you Elijah the 
prophet before the coming of the great and dread- 
ful day of the Lord." The words of the angel 
evidently refer to this prophecy, and at the same 
time imply that the messenger of the Lord, who 
was to precede and announce the Messiah, was 
not to be Elijah himself, according to common 
expectation, but one who should " go before him 
in the spirit and power of Elijah," — one who, like 
Elijah, should be endowed with a perception of 
God's purposes towards mankind, and with power 
to operate on their minds, to persuade them to 
repentance, and thus " to make ready a people 
prepared for the Lord." 

In due time John was born ; and his birth took 
place six months before that of Jesus, whose 
mother Mary was the cousin of his mother Eliz- 
abeth. As the former event may be considered 
the dawn which betokened the rising of the Sun 
of Righteousness, we perceive the propriety of its 
being recorded by Luke in the beginning of his 
Gospel. The circumcision of John took place, 



4 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

as was customary among the Jews, on the eighth 
day after his birth; and on this day his father 
Zacharias recovered the use of his speech, of 
which he had been deprived, as a sign of the 
truth of what the angel had told him. " He 
spake, and praised God " ; and his joy burst forth 
in the words of that sublime and holy song, be- 
ginning, " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for 
he hath visited and redeemed his people." We 
are then told that " the child grew, and waxed 
strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the 
day of his showing unto Israel." The meaning 
of this last clause is not that John, in his early 
childhood, lived alone in a wilderness, but that 
he passed his days, till he was called to the exer- 
cise of his mission, in the privacy of his parents' 
abode, which was in the deserts or hill-country of 
Judaea, as we are informed in the former part of 
the same chapter. As Hebron was the capital of 
this hill-country, and was, moreover, one of the 
cities appointed for the residence of the priests, 
it was probably the place where John passed his 
childhood with his parents, as Josus did with his. 
Its distance south of Jerusalem was between 
twenty and thirty, and in the same direction from 
Nazareth about seventy miles. 

Nothing more is related of John, till we hear 
of his call to commence his great work. The 
period of his entrance on his ministry is marked 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 5 

with great precision. " Now in the fifteenth year 
of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate 
being governor of Judaea, and Herod being te- 
trarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch 
of Iturea and of the region of Trachonitis, and 
Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and 
Caiaphas being the high-priests, the word of 
God came unto John the son of Zacharias, in the 
wilderness. And he came into all the country 
about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repent- 
ance for the remission of sins." The call came 
to him in the wilderness, or thinly peopled hill- 
country, where his family resided ; and beginning 
there, he advanced towards Jerusalem, confining 
himself to the same retired portions of Judaea, 
and preaching to those who resorted to him in 
increasing numbers, till he reached Bethabara 
beyond Jordan, a few miles from the holy city, 
where he held his principal station. All this dis- 
trict of country bordered upon the sacred river 
Jordan, in which he baptized those who were 
affected by his preaching, and enlisted themselves 
among his disciples. Bethabara was probably 
near a fordable part of the river, as the meaning 
of the word is " the house of the passage." It 
was therefore a convenient place of resort for 
his hearers. 

The great doctrine which the Baptist preached, 
as preparatory to the Redeemer's kingdom, was 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

repentance. " In those days," says the account 
of Matthew, " came John the Baptist, preaching 
in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent 
ye ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For 
this is he that was spoken of by the prophet 
Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the 
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make 
his path straight." His custom, which was not a 
new one among the Jews, was to baptize those 
who believed his warnings, and joined themselves 
to him as converts or disciples, that he might sig- 
nify the cleansing and renewing of mind which 
was necessary for the reception of the new state 
of things which was approaching, as well as es- 
sential to the repentance which he himself so 
earnestly insisted on. And the same meaning of 
moral preparation is to be attributed to the pro- 
phetic metaphors of filling the valleys and bring- 
ing low the mountains and hills, making the 
crooked ways straight, and the rough smooth, 
which were duties belonging to the herald and 
forerunner of the anointed Prince of peace. 

The appearance and habits of living which were 
assumed and practised by John, while he was 
preaching and baptizing, and to which he had no 
doubt accustomed himself from tender age, were 
consistent with his character as the representative 
of Elijah. His clothing was coarse, and his food 
such as the deserts yielded. " And the same 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 7 

John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leath- 
ern girdle about his loins ; and his meat was lo- 
custs and wild honey." * Compare this account 
of Matthew with the description given in the Sec- 
ond Book of Kings of Elijah. " What manner 
of man," inquired Ahaziah of his messengers, 
" was he who came up to meet you, and told you 
these words ? And they answered him, He was 
an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather 
about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the 
Tishbite." f This was probably a usual kind of 
dress with the ancient prophets, especially in 
times of distress or great excitement. The insect 
called the locust was allowed as food by the Le- 
vitical law, J and travellers assure us that it is 
eaten in Eastern countries at the present day, and 
that the bees of Palestine still deposit their stores in 
the holes of the rocks in such abundance that the 
honey is sometimes seen flowing down the surface. 
Living in this severe manner, and proclaiming 
on the wild banks of the Jordan the approach of 
the Messiah's reign and Israel's redemption, John 
drew universal regard, and the desert became 
populous around him. " Then went out to him 
Jerusalem and all Judasa, and all the region 
round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in 
Jordan, confessing their sins." § I have already 

* Matt. iii. 4. J Lev. xi. 22. 

t 2 Kings i. 8. § Matt. iii. 5. 



8 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

said that the ceremony of baptism, or washing 
with water, was not new among the Jews, as sig- 
nificant of change and renewal, on the reception 
of converts or disciples to proposed forms of faith 
or discipline. It may be added, that it was a 
current opinion among the Jews, founded as 
usual on prophecy, that the forerunner of the 
Messiah, or Messiah himself, or both, would use 
the form of baptism, when the time of Israel's 
redemption should come. A passage in Zecha- 
riah which was thought to warrant this opinion 
is at least poetically descriptive of the office of 
John at his station of Bethabara beyond Jordan. 
" In that day there shall be a fountain opened to 
the house of David and to the inhabitants of Je- 
rusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." * 

The character of John's preaching and instruc- 
tions is set forth with a great degree of particu- 
larity in the account which is given by Luke of 
his exhortations and advice to various classes of 
persons, from which it plainly appears that his 
doctrine was of a direct and practical kind, and 
that the preparation which he inculcated was of 
a moral nature entirely. He warned the people 
not to rely with their wonted pride on their being 
the children of Abraham, but to " bring forth 
fruits worthy of repentance." He was surprised 
to see the Pharisees and Sadducees resorting to 

* Zech. xiii. 1. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 9 

him ; because they were so filled with this pride, 
and so confident in the merit of their ceremonial 
righteousness. He was surprised that they should 
come to his baptism, which was one of real and 
practical, not formal or mystical repentance. " 
generation of vipers ! " he exclaimed, " children 
of deceit and hypocrisy ! who hath warned you to 
flee from the wrath to come ? " 

When " the people asked him, saying, What 
shall we do then ? " he indicated by his answer 
what was the nature of those fruits which were 
worthy of repentance, those deeds which proved 
a true change of heart and mind ; — he said unto 
them, " He that hath two coats, let him impart to 
him that hath none ; and he that hath meat, let 
him do likewise." The great duty of benevolence 
is here enforced, and illustrated by one of its sim- 
ple modes, and exalted in clear superiority above 
the works of the law. 

And when the publicans, or tax-gatherers, came 
to be baptized, " and said unto him, Master, what 
shall we do ? he said unto them, Exact no more 
than that which is appointed you." He knew 
their peculiar temptations, and their besetting sin, 
arising from the circumstances of their situation, 
and he therefore warned them against the spirit 
of extortion, and exhorted them to honesty, mod- 
eration, and mercy. 

" And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, 



10 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

saying, And what shall we do ? And he said 
unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse 
any falsely ; and be content with your wages." 

This is all quite practical and plain, and shows 
that the eremitical Baptist, severe as he was in 
his manners, solitary in his haunts, and striking 
in his whole appearance and deportment, was yet 
simple and direct in his teaching, and did not 
affect to move in a cloud of mysticism. It de- 
notes also, that though he may have had, on some 
points, mistaken views of the Messiah's kingdom, 
and did not embrace the whole extent of its spir- 
ituality, yet he was well aware that it was to be a 
moral reformation, without which there could be 
no national deliverance, and that all who would 
be its subjects and partake of its blessings could 
secure their place only by repentance and right- 
eousness of life. This was one proof of the truth 
and divinity of his mission. Excited as the peo- 
ple were by the mere proclamation of the coming 
deliverer, he made no further use of the excite- 
ment than to direct it to moral ends. He knew 
that this was the limit of his commission. He 
said and did nothing to rouse the minds of his 
hearers to any hostile manifestations ; but whether 
they were Pharisees, Sadducees, publicans, or sol- 
diers, he only exhorted them to true repentance 
and the performance of the charitable and peace- 
ful duties. Here also we may observe a remark- 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 11 

able, and I may say a miraculous, conformity 
between the spirit of the Baptist's preaching and 
the spirit of the Messiah's religion as it was after- 
wards developed. There is no appearance of any 
intimacy or collusion between them. They lived 
seventy miles apart from each other, — the one in 
Nazareth of Galilee, and the other in Hebron of 
Judaea, — and therefore, though related to each 
other, had probably met but seldom, up to the 
time of the public appearance of John as a 
preacher and prophet. There is evidently an un- 
prepared and undesigned agreement between the 
introduction and the perfection of the new dispen- 
sation ; a spiritual agreement which could not 
have existed between two uninspired Jews, nur- 
tured in the prejudices and traditions of their 
nation. The true light was preceded by the true 
witness. The dawning was a pure and correct, 
though faint, likeness of the day. 

Distinguished, however, as John the Baptist 
had become by his austere mode of life, by his 
prophetic dress and bearing, by his bold, ear- 
nest, and authoritative teaching, by the crowds 
who appeared as his baptized disciples, and by 
his annunciation of the ardently longed-for Mes- 
siah, the people began to suppose that he might 
be the Messiah himself. If John had been only 
playing a part, and been under the influence of 
a worldly ambition, he might easily have turned 



12 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

this idea to iris own advantage and personal exal- 
tation. But he maintained his own proper place 
and duty, humbly and strictly. " And as the 
people were in expectation, and all men mused in 
their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ 
or not, John answered, saying unto them all, I 
indeed baptize you with water ; but one mightier 
than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am 
not worthy to unloose ; he shall baptize you with 
the Holy Ghost and with fire." * John allowed 
that he performed the office of baptism as a 
teacher and reformer, but declared that it was 
only introductory and emblematic, only a baptism 
with water ; while he who was soon to be mani- 
fested, the real Christ, to be whose servant he was 
himself unworthy, would baptize with a far more 
thorough, searching, and efficacious baptism, with 
a, spiritual and purifying baptism, with the Holy 
Ghost and witli fire. In using this latter expres- 
sion, he perhaps had in his mind the passage of 
Malachi, which says, " And he shall sit as a re- 
finer and purifier of silver; and he shall purify 
the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and sil- 
ver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering 
in righteousness." John, however, changes the 
metaphor, and represents the Messiah as a hus- 
bandman, with his winnowing fan in his hand, 
thoroughly separating the wheat on his floor from 

* Luke iii. 15. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 13 

the chaff, gathering the former into his granary, 
and burning the latter with fire. 

And now the time arrives when he who was 
to come appears. " Then cometh Jesus from 
Galilee to Jordan, unto John, to be baptized of 
him." From the retirement of distant Galilee, 
where he had passed his youth in study and labor, 
and in docile subservience to his parents, Jesus, 
having entered upon his thirtieth year, which 
was the age of induction into the priestly office 
among the Jews,* travelled to Bethabara, and 
presented himself to his relative to be baptized. 
How eventful was this meeting between the son 
of Elizabeth and the son of Mary ! They whose 
births had been announced by the angel Gabriel, 
and who had since lived apart in holy seclusion 
and quiet duty for thirty years, were now brought 
together by the call of God in the presence of 
assembled multitudes, and this was the first pub- 
lic interview between the commissioned herald 
and the anointed prince, between the messenger 
and the Redeemer. When John heard the re- 
quest of Jesus to be baptized, he at first forbade, 
or refused him ; for though he was not yet cer- 
tified of his being the Christ, yet he was proba- 
bly acquainted with the wonders attending his 
birth, and with his life of entire purity and holi- 
ness. Therefore he meekly remonstrated, " I 

* Numbers iv. 



14 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

have need to be baptized of thee, and comest 
thou to me ? " But Jesus, who would commence 
his ministry with a public and solemn ordinance, 
and regardful, perhaps, of the usage by which 
the sons of Aaron were washed with water be- 
fore they commenced the functions of the priest- 
hood,* answered, "Suffer it to be so now; for 
thus it become th us to fulfil all righteousness." 
Thus urged, or, it may be, commanded, John 
could no longer hesitate, and the two moved 
down through the silent crowd into the expectant 
stream, and its waters, more consecrated than 
consecrating, were poured on the Saviour's head. 

" Old Jordan smiled, receiving- such high pay 
For those small pains obedient he had spent, 
Making his waters guard the dried way 

Through wonders when to Canaan Israel went ; 
Nor does he envy now Pactolus' streams, 
Or Eastern floods, whose paths are paved with gems."'t 

As Jesus came up from the river, the heavens 
were opened to declare his mission to the earth, 
the spirit of God descended with a dove-like 
motion upon him, and a voice was heard pro- 
nouncing, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased." From this moment the min- 
istry of Jesus commenced, and, " being full of 
the Holy Ghost, he returned from Jordan, and 
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness," $ 
where he fasted and was tempted. 

* Exodus xxix. 4. t Joseph Beaumont. J Luke iv. 1. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 15 

As we know that Jesus was thirty years of age 
when he began his ministry, and that this was 
the age prescribed by the Jewish law as the 
proper time for the commencement of sacred 
functions, it is probable that John began his 
ministry at the same age, and, being six months 
older than Jesus, we may draw the conclusion 
that he had been six months preaching and 
baptizing, when that manifestation of the Messiah 
took place which was the great end of his bap- 
tism. 

At the expiration of our Saviour's sojourn in 
the wilderness, he returned to Bethabara, and 
took up his abode in that neighborhood. About 
the same time, the great council of the Jews, 
moved by the celebrity of John, and the surmises 
of the people concerning him, and being yet 
ignorant of the appearance and claims of Jesus, 
sent a formal deputation to the Baptist, to ascer- 
tain what he was, or assumed to be. "And 
this," says the Evangelist John,* " is the record," 
or rather the testimony, or free profession, " of 
John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites 
from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou ? And 
he confessed, and denied not ; but confessed, I 
am not the Christ." With decided and earnest 
reiteration he refused the kingly title. "And 
they asked him, What then ? Art thou Elias ? 

* John i. ] 9. 



16 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

And he saith, I am not." Though he did come 
in the spirit and power of Elijah, yet as he was 
aware that they intended to inquire whether he 
was Elijah himself, according to their notions, 
restored to earth to precede the Messiah, he was 
too honest to reply except in the negative. They 
pursued their interrogatories. " Art thou that 
prophet ? " They asked him, in the pertinacity 
of their opinion that some one or another of 
the ancient prophets was to reappear in person, 
whether he was such a prophet. And he still 
answered, " No." Then, having exhausted their 
suppositions, and unwilling to go back to Jerusa- 
lem without some satisfactory answer, they said 
unto him, " Who art thou ? that we may give an 
answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou 
of thyself?" The look of the Baptist, the hum- 
ble and yet rapt and holy expression of his coun- 
tenance, may be imagined, but not described, 
with which he said, in the sublime words of 
Isaiah, and standing in that forest by the flowing 
waters of Jordan, " I am the voice of one crying 
in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the 
Lord." It was immaterial what he was in per- 
son, or in name ; he was only a voice, — a voice 
in the wilderness, — but yet a voice proclaiming 
to the world, and proclaiming truly and solemnly, 
" Make straight the way of the Lord." 

As John had denied being either of the per- 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 17 

sons suggested, the deputation asked, in surprise, 
and perhaps with anger, why then he undertook 
to perform the important office of baptism. In 
answer, John declared, as he had before, that 
his baptism was but outward and introductory, 
whereas his successor and superior would baptize 
with a holier and mightier baptism. He inti- 
mated, moreover, that this exalted personage, 
though they knew him not, was even then among 
them. And thus he publicly declared to this 
official deputation the actual arrival of the Mes- 
siah. 

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward 
him, and made him known to the people who 
were then assembled, by that memorable excla- 
mation, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world ! " * He then went 
on to say, that this was he who, coming after 
him, was yet before him ; that he did not at first 
know that he was the expected Redeemer, but 
that it was to make him manifest to Israel that 
he himself had come baptizing with water ; and 
that on the day when he baptized him, he saw 
and heard those heavenly signs which convinced 
him that he was the Christ, for they were signs 
which he had been taught to look for. " He that 
sent me to baptize with water," said he, " the 
same said unto, me, Upon whom thou shalt see 

* John i. 29. 



18 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the 
same is he who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." * 
He then adds, " And I saw, and bare record, 
that this is the Son of God." 

Again the next day after, as he was standing 
with two of his disciples, he looked on Jesus as 
he walked by, and said, " Behold the Lamb of 
God ! " One of these disciples was Andrew, and 
the other probably was John the Evangelist ; f 
and these two disciples of the forerunner of 
Christ were among the first disciples of Christ 
himself. 

As Jesus was now manifested to Israel, and 
had begun his work, the ministry of John may 
be said to have closed. Still, however, he co- 
operated as he was able with his Master, and 
continued to baptize. Jesus also, or rather his 
disciples, began to baptize in Judasa ; and this 
seems to have excited the jealousy of the dis- 
ciples of John, who came and reported it to him.J 
The Baptist at this time had moved higher up 
the river, and "was baptizing in Enon, near to 
Salim, because there was much water there." 
His reply to his disciples hushed their murmur- 
ings, and was another humble, affectionate, and 

* John i. 33. 

t When John speaks of a disciple, without mentioning his 
name, he is supposed to intend himself. 
t John iii. 22 ; iv. 2. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 19 

manly testimony to the superior dignity of Jesus. 
He told them, that they themselves would bear 
him witness, that he said he was not the Christ, 
but was sent before him. He declared that as 
the friend of the bridegroom rejoiced to hear the 
bridegroom's voice, so his joy was fulfilled. He 
added those affecting and prophetic words, " He 
must increase, but I must decrease." He then 
spoke at large of the divine truth and glory of 
the mission of Christ, concluding, "He that be- 
lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he 
that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but 
the wrath of God abideth on him." 

" He must increase, but I must decrease." 
Perhaps John did not himself know how soon 
and how fearfully those words were to be ful- 
filled. He could not have known it; because, 
though content to occupy an inferior station, he 
yet looked for some signal and outward display 
of the Messiah's kingdom, to be manifested, 
however, with accompanying holiness, in which 
he might participate, or at least rejoice. But 
this was not to be granted him. His work and 
his life were soon to be ended. 

The popularity of John had attracted the no- 
tice of Herod the tetrarch, surnamed Antipas, 
who was the son of that Herod who had thirty 
years ago commanded the slaughter of the in- 
fants of Bethlehem. He had sent for the Baptist, 



20 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

and conversed with him ; not that he was desirous 
of hearing truth, but he was anxious to see so 
celebrated a person ; and celebrity was, in his 
eyes, as it is in the eyes of many, the great thing, 
whether it appertain to a buffoon or a saint. But 
John reproved him for his marriage with Hero- 
dias, his brother Philip's wife, which so incensed 
that bad woman, that she caused her infatuated 
husband to throw him into prison ; which prison, 
according to the historian Josephus, was the for- 
tress of Machasrus, on the northern border of the 
Dead Sea. Here John was doomed to lie inac- 
tive, — another proof of the proverbial fickleness 
of the favor of great men and princes, — but still 
retaining the respect of Herod on account of his 
integrity and wisdom, and causing him to fear on 
account of his favor with the people. Herodias 
would have killed him at first ; " but she could 
not ; for Herod feared John, knowing that he was 
a just man and an holy, and observed him." But 
she was revengeful as she was licentious, and she 
did not forget the Baptist's offence, nor her own 
deadly purpose. 

While John was lying thus in prison, in the 
power of a weak prince, who was under the influ- 
ence of a wicked and dangerous woman, he heard 
of the works of Christ, but heard nothing which 
promised deliverance. Either suffering himself 
to become impatient, at which we need not won- 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 21 

der, or desiring to obtain the most definite infor- 
mation regarding the proceedings and designs of 
Jesus, he sent unto him two of his disciples, who 
adhered to him in all his troubles, to inquire of 
him, " Art thou he that should come, or do we 
look for another ? " The answer which Jesus re- 
turned, while it reminded him of the continued 
testimonials of the Spirit to his mission by mira- 
cles, directed him to the spiritual nature of his 
kingdom, which was evinced by his preaching its 
glad tidings to the poor. And this answer proba- 
bly calmed the troubled though strong mind of 
John, and satisfied him that he must now look 
for deliverance to that kingdom alone, " where 
the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary 
are at rest." 

As the messengers of John departed, Jesus be- 
gan to speak concerning him to the surrounding 
multitude, and rendered a testimony to his pro- 
phetic mission, which proves his own unshaken 
confidence in the Baptist's integrity. What, he 
asked them, did they go out into the deserts of 
Judaea to see ? Not surely the wind-shaken reeds 
on the banks of the Jordan ; not a man clothed 
in fine and costly raiment, for men thus clothed 
were to be found in palaces, not deserts ; but they 
went for the purpose of seeing a prophet. And 
he was indeed more than a common prophet. 
He had more than a common mission, and he had 



22 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

faithfully discharged it. He was sent to prepare 
the way of the Messiah, and he had prepared it. 
Of those who had hitherto been raised up for im- 
portant purposes by the Almighty, none had been 
greater than John the Baptist ; and yet even he 
entertained so inadequate notions of the entire 
spirituality of the Messiah's kingdom, that the 
least among those who should truly receive it, in 
its pure separateness from the world, would be 
greater than he. 

After bearing this open testimony to the truth 
of John's divine mission, and the reality of his 
prophetic character, — a truth and reality which 
were not impaired by the imperfection of his 
views, — Jesus closes the discourse by some re- 
marks on the effect of his ministry in connection 
with his own. He speaks of the small number 
of those who had been moved to repentance by 
John the Baptist or by himself, and rebukes the 
people of that age for their perversity in rejecting 
both, although they were so different from each 
other in character and habits. John, being of an 
austere and retired deportment, was charged with 
being melancholy or crazed ; — they said, " He 
hath a devil." He himself, mingling more freely 
with men of all ranks, and partaking of their en- 
tertainments, was rudely accused of being " a 
gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of 
publicans and sinners." Such a stubborn and 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 23 

petulant generation might be fitly likened to chil- 
dren in the streets, who would refuse to join with 
their companions in any games, and would nei- 
ther dance to their festive piping, nor lament with 
them when they imitated the funeral wail. 

It was probably about three months after this 
occurrence that the revengeful Herodias found 
an opportunity of accomplishing the destruction 
of the Baptist. As Herod was keeping his birth- 
day, by a magnificent supper which he gave to 
his lords and captains, she sent her daughter by 
her former husband * into the hall, to dance be- 
fore him and his guests. The exhibition pleased 
the tetrarch to such a degree, that he promised 
with an oath to grant the daughter whatsoever 
she should ask, even to the half of his kingdom. 
The young dancer went out, and reported this to 
her mother, and consulted her with regard to the 
request which she should prefer. Herodias, with- 
out hesitation, and feeling that the dark game 
was now in her own cruel hands, told her daugh- 
ter to ask for the head of John the Baptist ; and, 
in order to make sure of her prey, and guard 
against any humane deception, she added the con- 
dition, that the head should be brought to her on 
a " charger," or large dish. For such a terrible 
request the sobered king was wholly unprepared, 

* She had a daughter, as Josephus tells us, by the name of 
Salome. 



24 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

and he was " exceeding sorry." Nevertheless, he 
conceived himself bound by his oath, — as if an 
oath could bind the soul to crime, — and sent an 
executioner to the prison to do the wicked deed. 
" It was the holy purpose of God," says Bishop 
Hall, " that he who had baptized with water 
should now be baptized with blood." The blame- 
less John, — the preacher of repentance and right- 
eousness, — the holy reprover of vice, whether a 
publican's or a king's, — was beheaded in the 
prison. " For one minute's pain, he is possessed 
of endless joy ; and as he came before his Saviour 
into the world, so is he gone before him into 
heaven." His faithful disciples forsook him not, 
though dead, but came, and " took up the body 
and buried it " ; and then went and informed 
Jesus of what had taken place. 

The uneasy conscience of Herod Antipas would 
not suffer him to forget the image of his victim. 
When he afterwards heard of the fame of Jesus, 
he expressed his belief that it was John the 
Baptist, whom he had beheaded, risen from the 
dead. 

It is not told us in the Gospels where the Bap- 
tist was buried by his disciples. Less authentic 
accounts state, that " in the time of Julian the 
apostate, his tomb was shown at Samaria, where 
the inhabitants opened it, and burnt part of his 
bones ; while the rest were saved by some Chris- 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 25 

tians, who carried theni to an abbot of Jerusalem, 
named Philip." * 

The Eoman Church celebrates the martyrdom 
of John the Baptist on the 29th of August. But 
the day on which he is especially commemorated 
is the 24th of June, which is kept as the day of 
his nativity ; it being the only nativity, besides 
that of our Saviour, which that church observes. 
The Apostles and other saints bore witness to the 
truth more especially by their deaths, but John 
more especially by his birth, with its concomitants. 
A kind of perpetual commentary is thus afforded 
on the declaration of the angel, that " many shall 
rejoice in his birth." And as our Lord's -nativity 
is observed on the 25th of December, and he was 
about six months younger than John, the 24th of 
June is properly selected as the birthday of the 
latter. Here again a comment of the same poet- 
ical character, on another text, has sometimes 
been noticed. The days, which begin to lengthen 
at the first of those dates, and to grow shorter at 
the last, point to that saying of the Baptist already 
quoted, " He must increase, but I must de- 
crease." 

But leaving these somewhat fanciful allusions, 
we cannot fail to observe that the life of the Bap- 
tist, setting forth so clearly and prominently the 
gravity, disinterestedness, courage, and purity of 

* Calmet. 
2 



26 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

his character, is a worthy introduction to the Lives 
of that " glorious company of the Apostles," who 
praised God as he did in life and death, who sur- 
round the Lamb in heaven as they did on earth, 
and whose example enforces that of the forerun- 
ner, which so earnestly exhorts us to " constantly 
speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently 
suffer for the truth's sake." for more of that 
primitive faith and virtue ! for more witnesses, 
more disciples ! 

" Where is the lore the Baptist taught, 

The soul unswerving, and the fearless tongue ? 
The much-enduring wisdom, sought 
By lonely prayer the haunted rocks among ? 
Who counts it gain 
His light should wane, 
So the whole world to Jesus throng 1 " 



LIVES 



OF 



THE APOSTLES 



THE TWELYE. 

Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Teacher sent 
from God, soon after he commenced his min- 
istry, selected twelve men to be his immediate 
followers and confidential disciples. " Now the 
names of the twelve Apostles are these : the first, 
Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his 
brother ; James the son of Zebedee, and John his 
brother ; Philip, and Bartholomew ; Thomas, and 
Matthew the publican; James the son of Al- 
pheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thad- 
deus ; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, 
who also betrayed him." This list of the Apostles 
is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, who was 
himself one of them. We are also presented 
with a similar catalogue in the Gospels of Mark 
and Luke, and in the Book of Acts.* 

* Matthew's list is from chap. x. 2, 3, 4. For facility of refer- 
ence, the three remaining lists of the twelve are here subjoined. 
"And Simon he surnamed Peter; and James the son of Zebe- 



28 THE TWELVE. 

Why the exact number of twelve was appoint- 
ed, it is more difficult than important to deter- 
mine. Perhaps it was done in compliance with 
the attachment of the Jews to that number. Per- 
haps it was with a more particular reference to 
the number of the sons of Jacob, and the tribes 
of which they were the progenitors and founders ; 
" Ye also," says Jesus, " shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
Under the new dispensation, ye twelve, whom 
I have chosen, shall exercise the same spiritual 
authority and rule as did the twelve patriarchs 
under the old dispensation. Ye shall be regarded 
with the same religious respect. Ye shall give 
laws and ordinances to my people. 

The motives which induced the Master to call 
to himself a select company of disciples seem to 

dee ; and John the brother of James ; and he surnamed them 
Boanerges, which is, The Sons of Thunder ; and Andrew ; and 
Philip ; and Bartholomew ; and Matthew ; and Thomas ; and 
James the son of Alpheus ; and Thaddeus ; and Simon the Ca- 
naanite ; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him." Mark iii. 
16, 17, 18, 19. 

" Simon, whom he also named Peter; and Andrew his brother; 
James and John ; Philip and Bartholomew ; Matthew and Thom- 
as; James the son of Alpheus, and Simon called Zelotes; and 
Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, who also was the 
traitor." Luke vi. 14, 15, 16. 

" Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thom- 
as, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and 
Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James." Acts i. 13. 



THE TWELVE. 29 

be more obvious. It was proper and even neces- 
sary that lie should have some followers in whom 
he might particularly confide, and who should be 
always near him and about him. 

It was needful, in the first place, that he should 
be thus attended, in order that the wonders 
which he worked in confirmation of the divinity 
of his mission should be nearly inspected and 
credibly attested. I deem it one of the strongest 
evidences of the truth of our Saviour's miracles, 
that they were performed, not only in sight of 
the multitude, but of a select company, who were 
too familiar with him to be deceived themselves, 
and too honest to join with him in deceiving oth- 
ers. Being brought into the midst of his opera- 
tions, they were qualified to judge of their reality 
and integrity, and therefore qualified to report 
them to the world with all the warmth of convic- 
tion, and all the directness, particularity, and 
authority of constant experience and repeated 
vision. A changing crowd, never composed per- 
haps on any two occasions of the same materials, 
might have been mistaken ; but a band of twelve 
companions could not have been. They were 
fitted, as in no other way they could have been 
so well, for the purpose of declaring to men the 
power from above with which their Master was 
invested; and that they might be thus prepared 
was one of his designs in choosing them. " Ye 



30 THE TWELVE. 

are witnesses of these things," said he to the 
eleven, after his resurrection from the dead. He 
evinced a consciousness of innocence and sincer- 
ity by admitting so many partakers of his secret 
counsels and his daily deeds ; and he manifested 
his wisdom by securing such an irrefragable tes- 
timony to the reality of those signs from Heaven 
which pointed him out as truly the Son of God. 

The apostles were selected, in the second place, 
in order that, by reiterated instruction, they 
might become well acquainted with the religion 
which their Master was about to establish on the 
earth. "It is given unto you to know the mys- 
teries of the kingdom of heaven." Jesus ad- 
dressed himself to all who had ears to hear, but 
more particularly to those twelve who were to 
preach in his name when he should be lifted up ; 
because, through them, mankind were to receive 
the tidings of his salvation. He chose them, that 
he might teach them, so that they in turn might 
teach. His doctrine was so new, so different from 
what men had been used to dignify with the title 
of religion, that occasional lessons to the multi- 
tude, uttered in a confined sphere and by a single 
individual, would hardly have served the purpose 
of rendering it familiar and making it well un- 
derstood. On this account it was more minutely, 
clearly, and repeatedly explained to a select class 
of pupils, who were thus prepared to become in- 



THE TWELVE. 31 

structors themselves, and, by penetrating into 
different and distant countries, to disseminate 
among the nations of the earth a religious system 
which was at first promulgated to the Jewish peo- 
ple, and limited to their small inheritance alone. 
They were called apostles, because they were sent 
out into the world.* Before they were sent, they 
were instructed in the purposes and powers of 
their mission. And how slow they were to com- 
prehend, after all the pains which had been be- 
stowed on them, the true nature of the Messiah's 
kingdom and laws, may be read in their own con- 
fessions of ignorance. It was late, and not till 
after supernatural illumination, that they were 
thoroughly initiated in the true meaning of the 
religion which they were commissioned to preach 
and to spread. This is a fact which forcibly at- 
tests, not the dulness of the disciples, for their 
natural perceptions were as quick as those of 
other men, but the need there was of their being 
well grounded in the doctrines of Christ, and the 
opposition which existed between the entire sim- 
plicity and spirituality of those doctrines and the 
grossness of their own expectations and of the 
common opinions of the world. 

It may be well to add to the above reasons for 
the separation of the twelve, that they were brought 
into a close personal intimacy with the Saviour, in 

* From the Greek cnrocn-eAAco (apostello), "I send." 



32 THE TWELVE. 

order that they might study his example, borrow 
his spirit, and so receive the image of his life that 
they might reflect it in their own. They were 
both the witnesses and the objects and recipients 
of that divine gentleness, compassion, and benevo- 
lence, which from that fountain flowed out all 
abroad on everything. They could not be so much 
in his society without being affected by the bland 
influences of his manners and character. It was 
very probably intended that they should be thus 
affected; that they should behold the temper of 
Christianity in a living form ; its doctrines set 
forth in conduct ; its precepts illustrated by a 
perpetually corresponding practice ; and that, be- 
holding this, they should be touched by its beauty, 
and conformed in some measure to its likeness, 
and enabled to hold up, not only the description, 
but the copy of it, before the sight of men. It was 
almost an inevitable result of their situation, that 
they should imbibe a portion of the divine life of 
Christianity from their strict fellowship with its 
founder. Like those flowers which are known to 
drink in the light of the sun while he remains 
above the horizon, and then to give it out in mild 
flashes when the evening shades come on, so the 
disciples, while their Master sojourned with them, 
while the Sun of Righteousness shone upon them, 
absorbed the beaming excellence of his character, 
and then, when he left the earth, emitted it par- 



THE TWELVE. 33 

tially again amidst the moral darkness which sur- 
rounded them. 

One other purpose, which the connection of the 
twelve disciples with our Saviour was fitted to an- 
swer, was, the qualification which it conferred on 
them for recording his deeds and words, and pre- 
serving to posterity the invaluable memorial. 1 
know not how we, of this age, could have trusted 
implicitly to accounts of the origin and true prin- 
ciples of the Christian religion, which tradition 
alone might have brought down to us ; nor is it 
easily conceivable how any persons could have 
been better prepared to render an authentic, trust- 
worthy, and interesting history of our faith, than 
were those who accompanied Jesus through the 
several scenes of his ministry, and immediately 
succeeded him in publishing the Gospel. Accord- 
ingly, we find that two out of the four relations 
of our Saviour's life and death were written by 
two of the twelve disciples ; and that the greater 
part of the remaining books of the New Testament 
were likewise composed by the original apostles, 
and by that distinguished individual whose apos- 
tleship was bestowed on him directly and miracu- 
lously from Heaven. It is true, that we are obliged 
to learn from tradition who the writers were of 
several of the sacred books ; but a few facts of 
this simple nature might securely be trusted to its 
keeping, though at the same time it would be an 
2* c 



34 THE TWELVE. 

improper depository and an unsafe vehicle for the 
numerous occurrences, sentiments, and precepts 
which constitute the Christian system. It is a 
self-evident proposition, that the chosen compan- 
ions of Jesus, having witnessed his miracles, 
having been instructed in his religion, and made 
intimately acquainted with his character, were 
qualified in the best manner to convert their expe- 
rience into history, and to transmit to the latest 
ages an indubitable standard of Christian truth. 

Such appear to be our Saviour's motives, as far 
as we are authorized to judge of them, in nomi- 
nating his twelve disciples. It becomes a matter 
of no inconsiderable interest to us to know some- 
thing of the history, to ascertain something of the 
character, of those who were so peculiarly and so 
highly distinguished. 

Who were those, in the first place, whom the 
Saviour of men, the Prince of Peace, the Son of 
God, chose out of the whole world, to be his com- 
panions, his friends, his pupils, his witnesses, his 
historians, his apostles ? What were their quali- 
ties ? How were they recommended to the notice 
of Jesus ? What were their occupations, their 
condition, education, principles ? It was a re- 
markable station which they were called upon to 
hold, — so near the person, so high in the con- 
fidence, of the most exalted being who ever 
appeared on our earth. As disciples ourselves, 



THE TWELVE. 35 

though it may be unworthy of the name, and as 
distant from them in merit as we are in time, yet 
as professed disciples of that heavenly Master, we 
are naturally curious to learn more than simply 
the names of our favored predecessors. We would 
make ourselves acquainted with those men who 
saw, and heard, and touched, and lived and con- 
versed with, that holy prophet of God, for whom 
we feel a reverence only inferior to that which we 
entertain toward Him who sent him. 

And who were those, we would ask, in the sec- 
ond place, who were appointed by Jesus Christ to 
publish his religion, and enabled by the assistance 
of the Holy Spirit of God to publish it successful- 
ly? Who were those, who, in obedience to their 
Master, went out into all nations, teaching, con- 
verting, and baptizing, and planting the parent 
churches of our faith in learned Greece, and lord- 
ly Rome, and benighted Africa, and among those 
rude people of the North from whom we ourselves 
are descended ? It was no mean work in which 
they were employed. No revolution of recorded 
time can equal it in glory ; for thrones were sub- 
jected to its power, and the poor and humble of 
the earth were raised by it to an elevation far 
higher than thrones. They, like their Lord, were 
invested with a control over the operations of na- 
ture ; and, more than that, they, like him, and by 
his authority, and with his instruction, founded 



3b THE TWELVE. 

an empire, the most broad and lasting which has 
ever existed, over the human mind. Who were 
they ? As Christians, as subjects of that empire, 
as men amazed, at the same time that we are re- 
joiced, at what we have heard and what we be- 
hold, we are impelled to inquire who they were 
who established a dominion which has already 
covered the civilized world, and is apparently 
going on, with ever-encroaching steps, to spread 
itself over the whole earth. If the lives of any 
men are interesting, theirs must be peculiarly so. 
They are the great reformers, the great con- 
querors, whose empire has been continually in- 
creasing and strengthening, while the houses and 
dynasties of heroes and kings have risen, and 
nourished, and passed away into forgetfulness and 
ruin ; the only empire which has grown more 
vigorous and more hopeful with age, because the 
mind and the heart and the destiny of man, and 
the good providence of God, are joined to sup- 
port and perpetuate it. Who were these men ? 
No elaborate biography, no studied panegyric, 
has portrayed to us the lives and characters of the 
apostles of Christ. In their own condensed and 
simple writings, and in the quite as simple book 
of their Acts, composed by one of their associates, 
we must glean such sketches of them as are to be 
found in connection with the accounts of their 
Master and the history of their religion ; for of 



THE TWELVE. 37 

themselves, as individuals, they seldom think of 
speaking ; absorbed in their duty and devoted to 
their great work, the idea of self-importance or 
personal fame never seems to have entered their 
minds. We shall not, however, esteem them the 
less because they were faithful to their calling, 
and sought not the praise and honor of men, and 
postponed their own glory to the glory of God. 
And although our just curiosity may not be grat- 
ified by a full and detailed portraiture of these 
eminent men, who remembered their work, and 
forgot themselves, yet we shall meet with notices 
enough in the Scriptures of the New Testament 
to enable us to form for ourselves an outline at 
least of some of their lives and characters. Of 
some of them we shall find more abundant ac- 
counts than of others ; for among them, as well 
as among mankind in general, there was undoubt- 
edly a diversity of power, which caused some of 
them to stand out in the foreground of action, 
and others to remain comparatively in shade ; 
though all of them might have been zealous, use- 
ful, and efficient, and most probably were so. 

Though the sacred writings themselves are the 
only sources of knowledge on this subject to 
which we may give implicit credence, yet from 
other early documents we may obtain some nar- 
ratives of the latter days of the apostles which 
are worthy of a good degree of faith. Making 



38 THE TWELVE. 

use, therefore, of such authorities as are within 
my reach, I shall proceed to give some account 
of the twelve disciples of our Lord ; pursuing the 
order in which they are arranged by Matthew, 
only because his catalogue is the first which oc- 
curs in the common collocation of the Gospel 
histories. 



SIMON PETER. 

Simon, who also received from our Lord the ap- 
pellation of Peter, is invariably the first named on 
all the four lists of the apostles, and was. on sev- 
eral accounts, the chief of their company. He 
was one of the first who was called to be a disci- 
ple; though not the very first, for Andrew his 
brother appears to have been called before him, 
or at least at the same time with him. He was 
distinguished above the rest by the solemn predic- 
tions and trusts of his Master, by his uncommon 
zeal, and by his strong natural talents. He is 
altogether not only a conspicuous disciple, but 
a remarkable man. The sacred historians give 
us more copious accounts of him than of the 
other apostles, and a distinct conception of his 
character may be gained from what they re- 
late. 

He was, as is stated two or three times in the 
Gospels, the son of John or Jona, who was proba- 
bly, like his children, a fisherman. The family 
had lived in the town of Bethsaida, on the north- 
western side of the lake of Genesareth, otherwise 



40 SIMON PETER. 

called the sea of Tiberias, or the sea of Galilee,* 
where Peter was born ; but they afterwards seem 
to have removed to the neighboring city of Caper- 
naum, and then consisted, as far as we can ascer- 
tain, of Simon himself, his brother, and his father, 
his wife, and her mother. "When Galilee was the 
scene of our Saviour's ministry, Capernaum was 
the place of his most constant abode ; and it is 
probable that his resort to it was determined in 
some measure by its being the residence of Peter, 
in whose house he is thought to have lodged. 

As we learn from the Evangelist John, Simon 
was acquainted with Jesus, and had heard him 
attentively, before he became one of the selected 
disciples. His brother Andrew was already one 
of the disciples of John the Baptist, and was 
standing with a fellow-disciple in company with 
their master, at a time when Jesus was passing 
by. Looking upon him as he walked, John, by 
whom he had recently been baptized, exclaimed, 
" Behold the Lamb of God ! " Upon this, the two 
followed him, and, on the invitation of Jesus, went 
with him to his dwelling-place, and abode with 
him that day. Convinced of the justice of his 
claims, Andrew sought for his brother Simon, and 

* This lake took its name of Galilee from the province in which 
it was situated, and Genesareth and Tiberias from towns on its 
coast. It was more anciently called the sea of Chinnereth. Numb, 
xxxiv. 11 ; Josh. xiii. 27. 



SIMON PETER. 41 

saying to him, " We have found the Messias, or 
Christ," he brought him to Jesus. And when 
Jesus beheld them, he said, " Thou art Simon, 
the son of Jona; thou shalt be called Cephas," 
which is by interpretation into the Greek, Petra, 
and into English, a Rock. By this manner of 
receiving Simon, Jesus manifested that he was 
acquainted with him, and had formed an estimate 
of his character ; that he had marked him as one 
who was fitted by his energy and activity to estab- 
lish his religion on durable foundations ; that even 
now he intended him for a great work. The 
brothers may at this early period be considered as 
disciples or pupils of Jesus, though not yet chos- 
en, according to the language of St. Mark, to " be 
with him always " ; for they still continued fish- 
ermen. It is pleasant to know that the two who 
were first called to be disciples were united 
together by the tie of natural brotherhood ; that 
the one brother led the other to the Saviour ; that 
they pursued their simple occupation together; 
and that together they were called from that sim- 
ple occupation to become fishers of men. 

That event took place a short time after, in the 
following manner. As Jesus stood by the lake, 
surrounded by a crowd who were pressing upon 
him to hear the word of God, he saw Simon and 
Andrew, in the practice of their usual occupation, 
and washing their nets on the shore. He entered 



42 SIMON PETER. 

their vessel, and prayed them to thrust out a little 
from the land, that he might the more convenient- 
ly teach the people. Then, having finished his 
discourse, he bade them launch out into the deep, 
and let down their net for a draught of fishes. It 
is now that we begin to perceive the ardent, affec- 
tionate, and confiding character of Peter. Though 
he and his companions had been toiling through 
the night without the least success, yet he at once 
consented to make another effort, in obedience to 
the wishes of Jesus. " Nevertheless, at thy word," 
he says, " I will let down the net." This was no 
sooner done than such a multitude of fishes were 
enclosed, that the net began to break, and they 
were obliged to call their partners, who were in 
another ship, to assist them, and both ships were 
so filled with what they drew in as to be near 
sinking. On beholding this, Simon Peter, ever a 
man of impulses, " fell down at Jesus' knees, say- 
ing, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 
Lord." In a transport of fearful humility he be- 
seeches Jesus to leave him, and not to stay with 
one so unworthy of his holy and wonderful pres- 
ence. But Jesus, instead of leaving him, now 
gives him the call to his apostleship, saying to 
him, " Fear not ; from henceforth thou shalt catch 
men " ; or, as the other evangelists write, applying 
the words to both the brethren, " I will make you 
fishers of men." Eeadily accepting the invitation 



SIMON PETER. 43 

to become the constant companions of the Mes- 
siah, and perhaps secretly expecting worldly ad- 
vantage from their connection with so great a 
personage, they straightway left all, their proper- 
ty, their home, and their former friends, and fol- 
lowed him. 

Peter's character now rapidly unfolds itself; a 
character of strong and contrasted features ; bold, 
honest, and vehement, and yet wavering and in- 
constant ; now forward and daring before all his 
companions, and now more timid than any of 
them. Wherever we meet with him, it is the same 
Simon that we see ; distinguished alike for high 
and generous virtues, and for faults inconsistent 
with those virtues, and altogether unworthy of 
them. Strength and weakness, courage and ir- 
resolution, impetuosity and indecision, are mixed 
up in his temperament in a striking and yet per- 
fectly natural combination ; and at the bottom of 
the whole there is a purity of feeling, and an 
integrity of purpose, which endear him to his 
Master, and fit him at last for his important 
destination and office. 

One of the occasions which may be noticed as 
developing these characteristics is that of his at- 
tempt to walk on the sea to meet Jesus. We are 
informed that after the miracle of the loaves and 
fishes, which took place on one side of the lake, 
Jesus commanded his disciples to pass over to the 



44 SIMON PETER. 

other in a vessel, while he remained to send the 
multitude away. A storm overtook the ship when 
she was in the midst of the sea, and, while she 
was tossing on the waves, Jesus came to them in 
the fourth watch of the night, or towards morn- 
ing, walking on the sea, as on dry land. At this 
extraordinary sight the disciples were troubled, 
saying, "It is a spirit " ; and to such a height 
was their terror excited, that they cried out for 
fear. But Jesus immediately spoke to them, and 
bade them not to be afraid, for it was himself. 
No sooner does Peter hear his voice, than he not 
only dismisses his fear, but gives loose to his en- 
thusiasm, and unwilling to wait till his Master 
reaches the vessel, and perhaps, too, tempted a lit- 
tle to display his faith, and do some great thing, 
he exclaims, before the others have recovered the 
use of their speech, " Lord, if it be thou, bid me 
come unto thee on the water." And Jesus, know- 
ing him perfectly, and willing at once to gratify, 
to test, and to instruct him, said, " Come." Pe- 
ter descends from the ship, and walks towards his 
Master. But the storm was stronger than his 
trust ; and when he felt himself out, so strangely 
and awfully, amidst the dashing foam and the 
boisterous wind, he was afraid, and he forgot his 
confidence ; and his faith, which hitherto had 
borne him up, grew faint and unable to hold him, 
and, beginning to sink, he cried again, and with 



SIMON PETER. 45 

the voice of despair, to Jesus, " Lord, save me ! " 
" And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand 
and caught him, and said unto him, thou of 
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? " That 
was all the Saviour said ; that mild rebuke, so 
unlike the denunciations which his professed fol- 
lowers in other ages have launched at what they 
have been pleased to call, but could not with cer- 
tainty know to be, deficiencies of faith ; that mild 
rebuke from him who did know all things was 
the only punishment for the failing faith of 
the disciple, — " Wherefore didst thou doubt ? " 
Wherefore, after seeing what thou hast seen, and 
hearing what thou hast heard, couldst thou 
doubt? And he raised the self-convicted man, 
and brought him into the ship, and " the wind 
ceased." 

Notwithstanding Simon's occasional misgivings 
and temporary weaknesses, his fidelity was in the 
main firm and certain, because it was founded on 
the real goodness and tenderness of his nature. 
There was a time, when, as related in the sixth 
chapter of the Gospel of John, many of the fol- 
lowers of Jesus " went back, and walked no more 
with him," because he spoke to them obscurely 
and figuratively of his office and kingdom, and 
because, from what they did understand, they 
began to suspect that there was something much 
more spiritual and much less lucrative and splen- 



46 SIMON PETER. 

did in bis proposed dominion than suited with 
their earthly conceptions. They went back, 
therefore, and walked no more with him. Then 
said Jesus unto the twelve, bis chosen twelve, 
" Will ye also go away ? " To whose heart, of 
those twelve hearts, does the affecting appeal first 
find its way ? Who answers it first ? The same 
man who but just now was afraid of the wind. 
" Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom 
shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life. 
And we believe and are sure that thou art that 
Christ, the Son of the living God." Generous, 
full-hearted, though too inconstant disciple ! 
Though others desert that good and gentle Mas- 
ter, thou wilt not leave him. In this time of 
trial thy heart has kept thee right. Thou art 
like some tall and comely tree, whose pliant trunk 
is swayed hither and thither by the passing storm, 
but whose tenacious root spreads wide abroad, 
and pierces deep beneath, and still reclaims the 
waving plant, and binds it firmly to the soil it 
loves. 

At yet another time also, Peter made the same 
open and bold confession. It was when Jesus, 
having asked his disciples whom men said that he 
was, and having received their answer, put the 
question to them, saying, "But whom say ye that 
I am? " Again it is the ardent Simon who ad- 
vances before the rest, and answers unhesitatingly, 



SIMON PETER. 47 

" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
This renewed proof of his attachment and faith 
draws forth the marked approbation of his Master, 
who answered him and said, " Blessed art thou, 
Simon, son of Jona ; for flesh and blood hath 
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is 
in heaven. The Spirit of God, himself, hath en- 
lightened thee. And I say also unto thee, that 
thou art Peter. I have already called thee a 
rock, and upon this rock will I build my church, 
and the gates of the place of death shall not pre- 
vail against it. Upon thy exertions shall the 
foundations of my church be laid, and laid so 
strongly that they shall never be overturned nor 
destroyed. And I will give unto thee the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou 
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; 
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven." 

That by these words of Jesus a certain degree 
of apostolic pre-eminence was conferred on Peter, 
I think is too plain to be disputed ; though some 
over-zealous Protestants have denied the fact. 
But why they should wish to deny it, I cannot 
see ; for I cannot see how the primacy which his 
Lord chose to confer on him should disturb them ; 
nor can I see, on the other hand, how that pri- 
macy, being fully admitted, can be an argument 
for the papal supremacy. If Peter was thought 



48 SIMON PETER. 

by his Master worthy of standing first among his 
disciples, who shall say that he did not deserve 
the dignity ? But what was the nature of that 
dignity ? "On this rock will I build my church," 
said Jesus. The Christian Church was not built 
on Peter alone, nor by him alone ; for all the 
apostles contributed to the edifice ; but to Peter 
was commissioned the duty of first declaring the 
Gospel to the Jews, and indeed, by a special vision, 
to the Gentiles also ; and the centurion and his 
family, converted and baptized by him, were the 
first fruits of Christianity out of the Jewish pale. 
He was, therefore, the foundation of the Church, — 
the rock on which its beginnings were laid. But 
there is nothing transferable in this part of his 
dignity, at least. The foundations of the Church 
are not to be laid twice and thrice, and over and 
over again, because a series of men calling them- 
selves popes claim to be his successors. Neither 
is there any promise of transmitting the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven, which signify only that 
authority which Peter, as an accredited apostle of 
Christ, was to have in his ministry. He was em- 
powered to act in general as an ambassador from 
Heaven ; to enact regulations, to establish and to 
break down, to do and to undo, with the concur- 
rence and power of the Head of the Church him- 
self. And this authority, let it be remembered, 
was committed to all the rest of the apostles in 



SIMON PETER. 49 

precisely the same words ; for they also were to 
preach their Master's doctrine to the world, and 
needed his delegated power in things pertaining 
to his kingdom. To them also did he say, there- 
fore, " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose 
on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The pre- 
eminence of Peter, then, appears to be simply a 
precedence among his brethren and equals, which 
was conceded to his abilities and energy ; and a 
preference which was bestowed on him as a teach- 
er of the religion of Christ. But there is no 
promise, no intimation, in the Scriptures, that 
even this pre-eminence was to descend on other 
men ; nor does the similarity between the popes 
of Rome and Simon Peter of Bethsaida — between 
the triple-crowned sovereigns of Christendom, who 
once set their feet on kings' necks, and the plain 
fisherman of the sea of Galilee — seem to be, in 
any point of view, very close or striking. 

Whatever elation of heart may have been pro- 
duced in Peter by the praise of a beloved Master, 
it was almost immediately doomed to be checked 
and mortified by the same impartial voice ; for in 
the very chapter which records this last occur- 
rence, we are told that the disciple drew upon him- 
self one of the severest rebukes which Jesus ever 
uttered. " From that time forth," says the Evan- 
gelist, " began Jesus to show unto his disciples, 

3 D 



50 SIMON PETER. 

how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer 
many things of the elders and chief priests and 
scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the 
third day." Intimations of this kind were always 
peculiarly unwelcome and enigmatical to the dis- 
ciples ; and on this occasion Peter came forward 
as usual, and with even more than his usual 
warmth took up his Master, and began to rebuke 
him, saying, " Be it far from thee, Lord ; this 
shall not be unto thee." Though he had so lately 
acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah, and had 
adhered to him in his humble and unkingly con- 
dition, yet even he had not wholly disjoined the 
ideas of worldly power and dignity from the per- 
son and office of the expected Saviour ; and the 
thought of his violent and shameful death was 
altogether shocking to him. But Jesus was par- 
ticularly anxious to crush these misapprehensions, 
and to familiarize his followers to his real situa- 
tion and his approaching and inevitable fate. He 
therefore thought proper before them all to ex- 
press, in a manner which might make them feel, 
how earnest his disapprobation was of their tem- 
poral expectations and fancies. " He turned, and 
said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan 
[tempter, adversary] ; thou art an offence unto 
me ; for thou savorest not the things that be of 
God, but those that be of men." The disciples 
had yet to learn, Simon Peter had yet to learn, 



SIMON PETER. 51 

how pure, unearthly, and immortal that religion 
was which they were appointed one day to pro- 
mulgate ; how it associated itself more with human 
suffering than with human glory and pride ; more 
with the secret sympathies and internal affections, 
much more than with the outward adornments 
of our nature ; and the early death of their Mas- 
ter — an event which they could not bear to 
think, and could hardly conceive of, but which he, 
the Divine Master, saw with a clear and steady 
vision — was yet to teach them that the infant 
doctrine which was to go through the world, con- 
soling the sorrows of the mourner, and pouring 
balm into wounded bosoms, was itself first to be 
nurtured with tears and baptized in blood. 

There is no doubt that Peter received his Mas- 
ter's rebuke properly, for we find that he was still 
distinguished and confided in by him. He, to- 
gether with James and John, was selected to wit- 
ness the transfiguration on the mount ; and in 
the same company he had also witnessed the 
resurrection of the daughter of Jairns. It ap- 
pears, moreover, that about this time he and his 
Lord dwelt together at Capernaum, in the same 
house ; for wheu the gatherers of the annual 
tribute came to Peter, he went into the house, 
and was there told by Jesus how he was to obtain 
a piece of money which would pay for them both. 
It would appear, therefore, that they lived to- 



52 SIMON PETER. 

gether, and, if so, that the disciple was high in 
the favor and confidence of his Master. He seems 
also to have exercised a sort of conceded pre- 
eminence among the twelve, as we often find him 
speaking in their name and behalf, both in asking 
and in answering questions. His rank is now 
evidently fixed. He is honored by his Master, 
notwithstanding his imperfections, and he is the 
head of the apostles, both from appointment and 
character. 

But his fault of impetuosity is not yet mended. 
It is one of the last faults, perhaps, which ever 
is mended, because it is constitutional. On that 
most solemn night of the last supper, Jesus, in 
order that he might at once testify his affection 
for his disciples, whom he loved unto the end, 
and show them also an example of practical 
humility, began to wash their feet, as if he had 
been their servant. When he came to Peter, 
that disciple, hurt and grieved that his Master 
should undertake so menial an office, gives way 
to his feelings, again presumes to dictate to that 
very Master, and exclaims, " Lord, dost thou wash 
my feet ? " Jesus condescends to expostulate 
with him, and to assure him that he would soon 
explain to him the act which now appeared so 
strange. " What I do, thou knowest not now, 
but thou shalt know hereafter." But Peter will 
not yield, nor listen, but answers, "Thou shalt 



SIMON PETER. 53 

never wash my feet." To which Jesus replies, 
" If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." 
That is, " If you will not receive this symbolical 
lesson of humility ; if you cannot cease your dis- 
putes about who shall be greatest in my king- 
dom ; if you will not divest yourselves of your 
notions of place and dignity, and become lowly, 
meek, and mutually kind, as my disciples ought 
to be, and must be, if they desire my approba- 
tion, then I must discard you from my service, 
and deprive you of my friendship." Peter, sub- 
dued at the bare intimation of forfeiting his Mas- 
ter's esteem, and again driven beyond the just 
limits of duty by the sudden revulsion of his nil- 
governed feelings, cries out, " Lord, not my feet 
only, but my hands and my head. Wash me 
all over, if it be thy will, only take not from me 
thy love." How perfectly natural is the whole 
of this scene ; how consistent with the previous 
character of Peter ; how just to the character of 
his Lord! 

And now the time draws near when the first 
of the apostles is to be tried more severely and 
to fall more sadly than ever. Soon after Jesus 
had washed his disciples' feet, he began to talk 
to them, in a most affecting strain, of his speedy 
death and his return to his Father. Peter's feel- 
ings are again alarmed, and he declares that, 
wherever his Master may go, he will follow him, 



54 SIMON PETER. 

and go with him, even into prison' and to death. 
" Though all men shall be offended because of 
thee, yet I will never be offended ; I will lay 
down my life for thy sake." Jesus, better aware 
of his disciple's weakness, and knowing that it 
would not be equal to the approaching trial, 
mournfully answered, " Wilt thou lay down thy 
life for my sake ? Yerily, verily, I say unto thee, 
the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me 
thrice." And yet the ardent disciple spoke the 
more vehemently, and said, " Though 1 should 
die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." 

Let us mark the result. After discoursing to 
his disciples, in those beautiful words which are 
to be found in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and six- 
teenth chapters of the Gospel of John, Jesus went 
out with them, and, coming to a place which was 
named GrCthsemane, left them there, and, taking 
with him Peter, James, and John, to watch with 
him, withdrew apart to pray to his Father. When 
he returned to these favored three, he found 
them, not watching, but asleep. It was towards 
morning ; and with frames oppressed with fatigue, 
and minds made heavy with sorrow, they had not 
been able to watch with their suffering and agon- 
ized Lord during his short absence, but had sunk 
down in a leaden slumber. More in pity than in 
wrath, the Saviour, addressing himself particular- 
ly to Peter, as the individual who had boasted 



SIMON PETER. 55 

the loudest, and had the most need of warning, 
said to him, " What ! could ye not watch with 
me one hour ? After all your professions, can 
you not banish sleep, and prove your attachment, 
by a vigil, for my sake, of one short hour? 
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into tempta- 
tion ; the spirit indeed is full of courage, but the 
flesh is weak." Again and again he returns to 
them, and still finds them sleeping. Then comes 
the traitor Judas, with his band, and they are 
roused effectually; and Peter, who could not 
watch for his Master at his earnest request, under- 
takes, without his authority, to fight for him ; 
and he drew his sword, and smote a servant of 
the high priest, and cut off his ear. So much 
easier is it to fight than to be dutiful ; and so 
much the more readily could Peter obey the 
impulses of his passions than the behest of his 
Lord. Jesus calmly reproves the offender, and 
then all his disciples forsook him and fled. 

There were two, however, who did not wholly 
forsake him ; but still, though at a distance, fol- 
lowed him. One of these two was Peter ; he sin- 
cerely loved his Master, and, though just rebuked 
by him, he resolves not to lose sight of him, but 
follows him afar off, even into the court of the 
high priest's house. There, trembling, anxious, 
and vibrating between fear and affection, he takes 
his seat with the servants at the fire. He does 



56 SIMON PETER. 

not remain there long unsuspected, but is charged 
with being one of the followers of Jesus. His 
fear preponderates ; his bold resolution, so lately 
formed, gave way ; he denies all knowledge of his 
Master. Yes, Simon Peter, the leader of the 
twelve, the rock of the Church, the confidant of 
Jesus, who walked on the sea, who held the spir- 
itual keys, who saw the dead raised up, who wit- 
nessed the glorious transfiguration, who declared 
himself but just now ready to be bound, and led 
to death for his Master, now sits among menials, 
denying him to menials ! with the mingled flush 
of dread and shame upon his cheek, denying, to a 
set of scoffing hirelings of a corrupt palace, that 
he ever knew that kind and trusting Master whom 
he had so lately acknowledged to be the princely 
Messiah, the Son of the King of Heaven ! By and 
by, and from another quarter, he is again attacked 
witli the same charge, — " Thou also wast with 
Jesus of Nazareth." Having committed himself 
once, and not having recovered from his confusion 
and fear, detected, and yet obstinate, struggling 
between contrition and wrath, a deep sense of hu- 
miliation and a strong dread of exposure, he again 
" denied before them all, saying, I know not what 
thou sayest." 

There are some apparent discrepancies in the 
several accounts given by the evangelists of Pe- 
ter's denial of his Master. But they are only 



SIMON PETER. 57 

apparent ; and indeed the veracity of the sacred 
writers is rather confirmed by these slight differ- 
ences, which ought to be expected in separate 
narratives of what must necessarily have been a 
confused and hurried scene. John, for instance, 
says that Peter stood with the officers at the fire, 
and Matthew and Mark say that he sat. Doubt- 
less he sat at one time and stood at another, in 
the agitation he was in, and therefore both rela- 
tions are not only true, but more strikingly au- 
thentic from their very appearance of discrepancy. 
Again, there is a difference with regard to the 
persons who are represented as having at several 
times accused Peter. Now, it is highly probable 
that though the apostle made but three distinct 
denials, he was yet accused by many, who in a 
tumultuous manner may have raised their voices 
against him, and thus rendered it doubtful who 
was the prominent assailant among a number of 
clamorous witnesses. In short, the accounts of 
the evangelists are evidently but sketches of a 
scene in which many things occurred which are 
not related by either, and some things which are 
recorded by one, though omitted by another. The 
main facts, however, agree in all ; and this being 
the case, the variations accord so well with the 
character of the scene described, and the agitation 
which all parties must have been in, that they 
only add truth to truth. 



58 SIMON PETER. 

Only imagine the scene ! Jesus, standing 
bound, as if he had been a criminal, surrounded 
by soldiers and exulting enemies, and questioned 
like an apprehended culprit by the high priest, 
but dignified, collected, and prepared for the 
worst ; while just below is his chief disciple, in 
the midst of a servile crowd, agonized with terror, 
and endeavoring with all his native vehemence, 
and with a native accent too, which of itself con- 
tradicts him, to clear himself before his contempti- 
ble accusers from the imputation of having any- 
thing to do with one whom he had been following 
daily and hourly for months, and whom, but a few 
moments ago, he had promised to follow to prison 
and to death ! But the measure of his degrada- 
tion is not yet full ; for again, the third time, is 
the charge repeated ; " Surely, thou also art one 
of them, for thy speech betray eth thee." And 
then, as others are apt to do, who become more 
boisterous the more they are in the wrong and the 
nearer they are to detection, and who call the God 
of truth to witness their transgressions of truth, 
the unhappy man " began to curse and to swear, 
saying, I know not the man. And immediately 
the cock crew." How dark is the account now 
of disgrace and crime against the fallen disciple ! 
Ingratitude, cowardice, falsehood, profanity! It 
was the lowest fall ; and, happily, it was the last. 
" The Lord turned, and looked upon Peter." 



SIMON PETER. 59 

What a volume of pathos and eloquence is con- 
tained in those few simple words ! His Lord 
looked upon him, " and with that gracious and 
chiding look called him back to himself and him." 
He remembered all, — remembered his Master's 
love, remembered his Master's warning, remem- 
bered his own duty. Conviction falls upon him, 
repentance overwhelms him, and he went out and 
wept bitterly. 

" What language in that look ! Swifter than thought 
The apostle's eye it caught, 
And sank into his very soul ! 
Through every vein a thrilling tremor crept ; 
Away he stole, 

And wept ; 
Bitterly he wept ! " 

From this time till after the crucifixion of Jesus, 
we hear no more of Peter. He probably passed 
this distressing interval in remorse and tears ; and 
there is no doubt that his repentance was entire 
and sincere, and that his character was much im- 
proved and purified by the late fiery trial through 
which it had been led ; for we find that Jesus, on 
the morning of his resurrection, after he had 
shown himself to Mary Magdalene, appeared also 
to Peter, according to an especial message which 
he had sent to him by an angel, in testimony of 
his continued confidence in him.* That Peter 

* The message was delivered by the angel to the Marys, who 
reported it to Peter. The angel, or young man clothed in white, 



60 SIMON PETER. 

had returned to his allegiance is manifest from 
the fact that he was the first of the male disciples 
who descended into the tomb wherein the Saviour 
had been laid. 

Some days afterwards, as several of the disciples 
were fishing together in a vessel, on the sea of 
Tiberias, Jesus appeared to them on the shore. 
On this occasion we may again observe a symp- 
tom of Peter's characteristic ardor. No sooner 
had he understood from John that it was the Lord 
who stood on the shore, and had been speaking 
with them, than he girt his fisher's coat about 
him, cast himself into the sea, and in this manner 
gained the land, while the rest came after him in 
the vessel. When they had all dined on the fish 
which had been taken, Jesus required of Peter 
that thrice-repeated assurance of his love in which 
a fanciful interpreter would discover a direct allu- 
sion to the late thrice-repeated denial. On receiv- 
ing each assurance, his Lord gives him an especial 
charge to feed his sheep. He then signified to 

says to the women, " Tell his disciples, and Peter, that he goeth 
before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him, as he said tin to 
you." What a touching pledge of forgiveness and reconciliation ! 
The moral to be derived from the history of Peter's fall is thus 
well and concisely brought home to us in the following verse by 
Cowper : — 

" Beware of Peter's word, 

Nor confidently say 
' I never will deny thee, Lord,' 

But, ' Grant I never may ! ' " 



SIMON PETEE. 61 

him, though darkly, by what death he should glo- 
rify God ; but refused to gratify his curiosity 
respecting the fate of his fellow-disciple John. 

In the Gospels we have no further information 
respecting this apostle. On turning to the Book 
of Acts, however, he is immediately presented to 
us in his former rank and station, as chief of the 
apostles, speaking in their name, and presiding at 
their meetings. It is he who proposes that the 
vacated place of Judas Iscariot should be supplied 
by lot. When some of those who were present at 
the effusion of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of 
tongues, mocked at the disciples, and said that 
they were full of new wine, it was Peter who in a 
most spirited manner refuted the slander, and 
spoke so powerfully of his Master's claims, that 
on the same day there were added to the number 
of Christian believers about three thousand souls. 
It was Peter who healed the lame man at the 
Beautiful Gate of the temple ; who addressed the 
people on that occasion ; who, when arraigned be- 
fore the chief priests, declared so boldly to them 
that salvation was alone by Jesus Christ; and 
who, when he and his companion John were com- 
manded not to speak at all nor teach in that name, 
returned, jointly with the beloved disciple, that 
heroic answer, " Whether it be right in the sight 
of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, 
judge ye." It was Peter who exposed the decep- 






62 SIMON PETER. 

tion of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, and at 
whose feet they both fell down dead. And it was 
Peter, who, by his shadow alone, healed many 
who were laid in his way.* 

After Samaria had, through the instrumentality 
of Philip, received the word of God, Peter and 
John were sent there by the apostles, in order 
that they might lay their hands on the converts, 
and cause them to receive the Holy Spirit. f And 
then it was that Peter so indignantly rebuked 
Simon the sorcerer, who thought that the gift of 

* It is not expressly asserted in Acts v. 15, that those persons 
were healed by Peter's shadow, and therefore some commentators 
have taken it for granted that they were not, and have even gone 
so far as to assert, that the apostle's neglect of them was a pun- 
ishment for their superstition. So says Rosenmiiller. But in the 
next verse we are told that great numbers of sick persons were 
also brought to him from the cities round about, and "were healed 
every one." Now there seems to be no good reason why these 
should be healed, and those who belonged to the city should be 
neglected. Their being placed in Peter's way, so that even his 
shadow might pass over them, shows more the affectionate and 
confident faith of them and their friends than it does their super- 
stition. If Peter was empowered from on high to heal diseases, 
he could do so by his shadow, as well as by a touch or a few words. 
His will was the agent ; the signs of its exertion were of no im- 
portance in themselves. As we are not informed that Peter re- 
buked those who laid the sick under his shadow, the most reason- 
able and compassionate inference is, that these, as well as the 
others, were healed. 

t The fact that the apostles sent Peter on this mission is proof 
sufficient that his precedence among them was far from being of 
the papal character. 



SIMON PETER. 63 

God might be purchased with money. " Thy 
money perish with thee," said he ; " thou hast 
neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is 
not right in the sight of God." 

We now find him very actively engaged in the 
duties of his apostleship, " passing throughout 
all quarters," performing miracles, preaching the 
word, and feeding the sheep of the great Shep- 
herd. At Lydda he healed a certain man, named 
iEneas, who had been sick with the palsy eight 
years ; and at the neighboring town of Joppa he 
raised to life a pious female disciple by the name 
of Tabitha, or Dorcas.* 

At Joppa he abode many days with one Simon, 
a tanner. It was while he was living here that 
he was called to instruct and baptize Cornelius, 
the centurion, who dwelt in Cassarea ; to prepare 
him for which duty, he was taught in a remarka- 
ble vision, not to call any creature of God com- 
mon or unclean, and that God is no respecter of 
persons, but in every nation he that feareth him 
and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. 
With these convictions on his mind, he obeys the 
call of Cornelius to come to him, and, while he is 
addressing him, witnesses the descent of the Spirit 
on him and his family, and orders them to be 
baptized in the name of the Lord. Thus he fulfilled 

* Tabitlia being the Syriac name, and Dorcas its translation 
into Greek. The words mean a doe or kid. 



64 SIMON PETER. 

to the utmost the prediction with which his name 
of Peter was conferred on him, and founded the 
Christian Church in both the Jewish and the Gen- 
tile world. It was an event of which we at this 
period can hardly estimate the importance. De- 
void of Jewish prejudices and antipathies, we can 
hardly conceive with what consternation the Jew- 
ish converts, who, as Jews, had always cherished 
the belief that religion and truth and God's pecu- 
liar favor always had been, and always were to be, 
confined to them, must have listened to the intel- 
ligence that the chief of the apostles had been 
breaking down the wall and drawing up the veil 
which were interposed between the faithful people 
and the rest of the world, and that henceforth 
there was to be no spiritual distinction between 
Hebrew and Greek, Jew and Gentile. Some con- 
ception of this indignant surprise of theirs may 
be formed from the recorded circumstance, that 
when Peter had returned to Jerusalem, " they 
that were of the circumcision," including his 
fellow-apostles, and indeed the whole Christian 
Church, " contended with him, saying, thou went- 
est in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with 
them." It was enough to provoke their amaze- 
ment, that he simply eat with them. But Peter 
had the steadfastness to defend himself, and ex- 
pound the whole matter to them from the begin- 
ning ; and so much were they impressed by the 



SIMON PETER. 65 

force and reason of his words, that they acqui- 
esced in peace, " and glorified God, saying, Then 
hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance 
unto life." 

Not long after this, Peter was put into prison 
by Herod, but was set free by an angel, who came 
to him while he " was sleeping between two sol- 
diers, bound with two chains." That he was sleep- 
ing in such a situation is an incidental and beau- 
tiful proof of his tranquillity in extreme danger. 
He then went down from Judaea to Cassarea, and 
there abode ; very probably in the house or un- 
der the protection of Cornelius, his distinguished 
convert. 

The next time that we hear of him is at the 
meeting of apostles and elders, which is generally 
called the Council of Jerusalem, and which was 
convened to settle the long and vehemently agi- 
tated question, again brought up by some of the 
believing Pharisees, whether it was needful to cir- 
cumcise all converts, and command them to keep 
the law of Moses. When there had been much 
disputing, Peter rose up, and gave his decided 
opinion against the necessity of circumcising the 
Gentiles, or bringing them under the ceremonial 
law. And with this opinion the Council at last 
coincided. 

With the history of this Council, the notices of 
Peter's life in the Acts of the Apostles come to an 



6Q SIMON PETER. 

end. He is named a few times in the epistles of 
Paul, and once with reprehension. That apostle 
tells us in his Epistle to the Galatians, that, when 
Peter was come to Antioch,* he withstood him to 
the face because he was to be blamed ; for that 
although he had already eaten with Gentiles, ac- 
cording to his own new principles so openly pro- 
fessed, yet when some of the circumcision came to 
Antioch, he withdrew from the Gentiles, from fear 
of the circumcised. This was an inconsistency, 
certainly, and shows that some remains of weak- 
ness still lingered about the character of Peter ; 
but it is the only inconsistency which is laid to 
his charge from the time of his Master's resurrec- 
tion ; and he can easily be forgiven, when we con- 
sider how much he had done and suffered, ever 
since that event, in his Master's name and for his 
Master's cause. 

All that remains to be said of this remarkable 
man is to be gathered, not from the Scriptures, 
but from other early accounts, the authority of 

* Ecclesiastical historians say that Peter founded the Church at 
Antioch, and some add, that he was its first bishop. Chrysostom 
writes: "This is one prerogative of our city (Antioch), that we 
had at the beginning the chief of the apostles for our master. For 
it was fit that the place which was first honored with the name 
of Christians should have the chief of the apostles for its pastor. 
But though we had him for a master awhile, we did not detain 
him, but resigned him to the royal city, Eome. Or, rather, we 
have him still. For though we have not his body, we have his 
faith." — Chrysostom, as adduced by Lardner. 



SIMON PETER. 67 

which, though not to be compared with that of 
the Scriptures, should be held in a due degree of 
respect. We are informed by Eusebius, that Ori- 
gen wrote of him, that " he was supposed to have 
preached to the Jews of the dispersion in Pontus, 
Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia. And at 
length coming to Rome, was crucified with his 
head downwards." This kind of death he was 
said to have requested, out of a feeling of humble 
respect to his Master. If so, it is an affecting 
conclusion of his eventful life, and another strik- 
ing exhibition of the ardent character which ad- 
hered to him to the last. He conceived it too 
great an honor that such an one as he should meet 
his death erect, and looking upwards, like his be- 
loved and venerated Lord ; and so, with his head 
in the dust, he closed his labors, his failings, his 
victories, his sufferings, and his life. 

There are Roman Catholic writers who main- 
tain that Peter was bishop of Rome during a pe- 
riod of twenty-five years before his martyrdom 
there. But this assertion, though supported by 
such high authority as that of Jerome, has been 
shown by Cave and others to be wholly unfound- 
ed. The most authentic account is, that Peter, 
after having been in Antioch for a season, came 
to Rome about the year 63 or 64, and suffered 
martyrdom in the manner above stated, a year or 
two after, during the persecution of the Christians 



68 SIMON PETEE. 

by the tyrant Nero, and that St. Paul was mar- 
tyred there at the same time. It also seems prob- 
able that he was crucified and buried on the 
Vatican Hill, whence his remains were afterwards 
removed to the Catacombs in the neighborhood of 
the city. Caias, a writer quoted by Eusebius, 
states that in his time, about the year 200, the 
tombs of Peter and Paul were to be seen at Rome, 
which is very likely to be true. It is the belief 
of the Catholics, that the body of Peter now re- 
poses under the splendid church which is called 
by his name : — 

" Christ's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb ! " 

Cave inclines to the opinion that neither Peter 
nor Paul was, properly speaking, bishop of the 
Eoman Church. He supposes that by their united 
exertions they planted it, and that its first bishop 
was Linus, who by the Catholics is placed next 
to St. Peter in the episcopal see. Irenaeus, about 
178, speaks of the Church of Rome as " founded 
and established by the two great apostles, Peter 
and Paul." But Epiphanius calls them the first 
apostles and bishops of Rome ; after whom, he 
says, were Linus, Cletus, Clement. 

The following description of the person of St. 
Peter, by Nicephorus, an ecclesiastical historian 
of the early part of the fourteenth century, is 
entitled to very little credence. But it may be 



SIMON PETER. 69 

regarded as a curiosity, if not a true portrait. 
"His body was somewhat slender, of a middle 
size, but rather inclining to tallness ; his complex- 
ion very pale and almost white ; the hair of his 
head and beard curled and thick, but withal 
short ; though St. Jerome tells us that he was 
bald, which probably might be in his declining 
age ; his eyes black, but specked with red ; his 
eyebrows thin, or none at all ; his nose long, but 
rather broad and flat than sharp." 

It is certain that he was a married man, and 
probable that his wife accompanied him in his 
journeys. St. Paul is thought to intimate as 
much, when he says, in his First Epistle to the 
Corinthians (ix. 5.) : " Have we not power to 
lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apos- 
tles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Ce- 
phas?" 

That he was married when he was called to be 
an apostle is certain, as the Scriptures mention 
his "wife's mother." But stanch Catholics, with 
Jerome at their head, will have it that he left his 
wife when he left all to follow Jesus. This, how- 
ever, does not well agree with the testimony of 
Paul. Clemens Alexandrinus relates, that Peter, 
seeing his wife going to be martyred, exceedingly 
rejoiced that she was elected to so great an honor, 
and that she was now returning home ; and, calling 
her by her name, encouraged and exhorted her, 



70 SIMON PETER. 

bidding her to be mindful of our Lord. The 
apostle is also said to have had a daughter by 
the name of Petronilla. 

Two epistles of Peter are received into the 
Canon of the New Testament. The authenticity 
of the first is well established and generally al- 
lowed. It is addressed " to the strangers scat- 
tered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, 
Asia, and Bithynia." By these " strangers " is 
most probably meant the Jewish Christians who 
sojourned in those regions ; though some com- 
mentators would have the term to apply both to 
Jewish and Gentile converts. The epistle was 
written from Rome, which is figuratively denom- 
inated Babylon, in the concluding salutation. Its 
purpose was to strengthen and comfort those to 
whom it was addressed, who were suffering under 
the persecutions which had begun to be fiercely 
waged against them by the heathens. The topics 
urged in it are equal to its design, and are 
highly consolatory and animating. Of the whole 
epistle, Erasmus says : " It. is worthy of the Prince 
of the apostles, and full of apostolical dignity 
and authority. It is sparing in words, but full 
of sense." 

The genuineness of the second epistle has been 
called in question from early times. It never 
was fully disproved, however ; and there was good 
reason for numbering it at last among the sacred 



SIMON PETER. 71 

books. The testimony of Eusebius concerning it 
is as follows : " One epistle of Peter, called his 
first, is acknowledged. This the presbyters of 
ancient times have quoted in their writings as 
undoubtedly genuine. But that called his second, 
we have been informed by tradition, has not been 
received as a part of the New Testament. Never- 
theless, appearing to many to be useful, it hath 
been carefully studied with the other Scriptures." 
Origen, who flourished in the third century, says 
of the two epistles : " Peter, on whom the Church 
is built, hath left an epistle universally acknowl- 
edged. Let it be granted that he has also writ- 
ten a second ; for it is doubted." That it was 
doubted is no proof of anything more than that 
the evidence in its favor was not so complete as 
that which could be produced for other sacred 
books. And it may be said, both of this epistle 
and the few other writings of the canon which 
were not fully received, that they manifest in 
their history how careful the first Christians 
were in examining the claims of alleged apostoli- 
cal compositions, and adopting them as of author- 
ity in the Church. The learned and candid Lard- 
ner observes, that so well founded was the judg- 
ment of those early Christians concerning the 
books of the New Testament, that no writing 
which was by them pronounced genuine has, 
since their time, been found spurious ; neither 



72 SIMON PETER. 

have we, at this day, the least reason to think 
any book genuine which they rejected. 

We may be authorized, therefore, in accepting 
the second epistle of Peter as his true work, not- 
withstanding the rather doubtful character of its 
evidence. If it was written by him, it was prob- 
ably written to the same persons, and from the 
same place, with the first. It was written, also, 
not long after the first, and not long before the 
death of the apostle. 

The day consecrated to St. Peter as that of his 
martyrdom, in the Roman Calendar, to which the 
Calendar of the English Church corresponds, is 
June 29. 



ANDEEW. 

Of Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, we 
are told but little in the sacred writings ; not 
enough, indeed, to enable us to form any estimate 
of his character. We may be permitted to con- 
jecture, however, from the circumstance of his 
having been a disciple of John the Baptist, and 
also from his having gone voluntarily to hear the 
instructions of Jesus, and thus made himself his 
first disciple among those who were afterwards 
his apostles, — we may conjecture, I say, from 
these circumstances, which have already been 
stated in the life. of Peter, that the temperament 
of Andrew was sober and religious, and that his 
mind was remarkably open to the reception of 
truth. So far as we can argue at all, we may 
argue the existence of everything that is good, 
from such commendable appearances. We can 
easily believe that he was a serious, candid, 
steadfast man ; very probably without the shining 
talents and the burning zeal of his brother, and 
quite as probably without his brother's prominent 
faults. That not much is recorded of him is a 

4 



74 ANDREW. 

proof that he was not very forward or active 
among the twelve ; but it is by no means a 
proof that he wanted good sense, discretion, or 
stability. 

We may also confidently deduce the affection- 
ateness of this apostle's character from the cir- 
cumstance of his seeking his brother, first of all, 
with that eager exclamation, " We have found the 
Messiah ! " This fact alone would be enough to 
interest us in him, did we know nothing of him 
beside. After spending part of a day with Jesus 
in his place of abode, and being satisfied that he 
was the long-looked-for Redeemer, he does not 
shut up this knowledge in his own breast, and 
feed upon the honor alone ; neither does he go 
and make himself of consequence by blazoning 
the matter abroad ; but he hastens to share the 
pleasure and the confidence with his brother. 
" He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith 
unto him, We have found the Messiah. And 
he brought him to Jesus." His joy was increased 
by his thus imparting it ; and so will our piety be 
strengthened by communication. Who, that has 
truly found Jesus, will not desire, after the exam- 
ple of Andrew, to lead a brother to his blessed 
abode ? And who that succeeds in leading a 
brother there will not feel that he crosses the 
sacred threshold with more delight and confi- 
dence than before ? 



ANDREW. To 

Andrew is generally styled by the ancient writ- 
ers of the Church JProtocletos, or the first called. 
The following encomium on him is by Hesychius, 
Presbyter of Jerusalem : "St Andrew was the 
first-born of the Apostolic Choir ; the prime pillar 
of the Church ; a rock before the rock ; the foun- 
dation of that foundation ; the first fruits of the 
beginning ; a caller of others before he was called 
himself. He preached that Gospel which was not 
yet believed or entertained ; revealed and made 
known that life to his brother which he had not 
yet perfectly learned himself. So great treasures 
did that one question bring him, ' Master, where 
dwellest thou?' which he soon perceived by the 
answer given him, and which lie deeply pondered 
in his mind, ' Come and see.' " 

We find, further, concerning him, that he was 
the disciple who, just before the miracle of feed- 
ing the five thousand, informed Jesus that there 
was a lad present who had five barley loaves and 
two small fishes, and then added the question, 
" But what are they among so many ? " This 
question, on the first view of it, seems to denote 
that Andrew had no idea that it was practicable 
to feed the multitude, and merely mentioned the 
small quantity of provisions in despair, and as an 
aggravation of their condition ; but it is possible, 
too, that he may have entertained a secret hope 
that it was in his Master's power to relieve their 



76 ANDREW. 

wants even with the five loaves and two fishes, 
and that he propounded the question in a hesitating 
manner, that he might draw forth his Master's in- 
tentions. If this last is the fact, it shows that he 
possessed more faith than was often manifested by 
the other disciples, though not such an enthusias- 
tic faith as was sometimes displayed by his more 
ardent brother. 

We read also of Andrew, that when certain 
Greeks, who had come up to Jerusalem to wor- 
ship at the feast of the Passover, expressed to 
Philip their desire to see Jesus, Philip mentioned 
the request to Andrew, and then they went both 
together to impart it to Jesus. These Greeks 
were no doubt what were called Proselytes of the 
Gate, or Greeks who had been converted to the 
acknowledgment and worship of the true God ; 
but who, on account of their Gentile extraction, 
were not entitled to all the religious privileges 
and distinctions of native Jews. They had heard 
of the fame of Jesus, and desired to be introduced 
to his presence, not only to gratify their curiosity, 
but, if we may judge from the succeeding dis- 
course of our Saviour, to inquire concerning his 
kingdom. The precaution which was used by 
Philip in preferring their request is a sign, in 
the first place, that he was doubtful whether a 
Gentile ought to be brought into the company of 
the Messiah ; and, secondly, that Andrew was, in 



ANDREW. 77 

his opinion, a person with whom he might profit- 
ably consult, in an affair which appeared to him 
to be of some moment and delicacy. 

It was a few days after this that Andrew, to- 
gether with Peter, James, and John, asked Jesus, 
privately, what the sign should be, when all the 
things which he had just been telling them re- 
specting the destruction of the temple should be 
fulfilled. This is all which is related of this 
apostle in the Gospels. In no other part of the 
writings of the New Testament is he ever men- 
tioned, excepting as he is included in the mention 
of the apostles as a body. 

Other ancient accounts inform us that he 
preached the Gospel in Scythia, Byzantium or 
Constantinople, various provinces of Greece, and 
other countries and cities. At Sinope, on the 
Euxine Sea, he is said to have met with his 
brother Peter. At last, coming to Patrae in 
Achaia, now Patras, an archiepiscopal see, he 
was crucified there, by order of Agaeus, procon- 
sul of that province. On approaching the cross 
to which he was condemned to be bound with 
cords, that his death might be more lingering, he 
is said, by one of the ancients, to have apos- 
trophized it in the following ardent manner : 
" Hail, precious cross, which has been conse- 
crated by the body of my Lord ! how ardently 
have I loved thee ! how long have I sought thee ! 



78 ANDREW. 

at length I have found thee, now waiting to re- 
ceive my longing soul. Take and snatch me from 
among mortals, and present me to my Master, that 
he who redeemed me on thee may receive me at 
thy hands." 

The instrument of his martyrdom is commonly 
affirmed to have been what is called a cross decus- 
sate, made by two pieces of timber crossing each 
other in the middle, in the form of the letter X, 
and hence known by the name of St. Andrew's 
Cross. 

His body was afterwards removed to Constanti- 
nople, and he is considered by the modern Greeks 
as founder of the Byzantine or Constantinopolitan 
Church. 

Andrew is also the patron saint of Scotland ; 
and the Scotch had a tradition that his remains 
were brought to their country, and entombed at 
St. Andrew's, in the fourth century. The day re- 
served to him in the Calendar is November 30. 
This day leads the season of Advent ; and the 
honor of thus announcing the time of the Lord's 
coming is said to be assigned to him, on ac- 
count of his having been the first who came to 
Christ. 



JAMES THE GREATER. 

James, the son of Zebedee, and the brother of 
John, is the third named on Matthew's list of the 
apostles. Of his father we are told nothing ; but 
his mother, as appears by a comparison of parallel 
passages, was Salome, who emulated her children 
in attachment to the Saviour, and is spoken of as 
one of those women who followed and occasionally 
served him, who accompanied him to the cross, 
and were the first who were permitted to see him 
after his resurrection. This James has received 
the surname of the Greater, or Elder, to distin- 
guish him from the other apostle, James the Less, 
of whom I shall speak hereafter. 

He, with his brother John, pursued the same 
occupation with their townsmen Peter and An- 
drew, and were partners with them. They were 
also washing their nets on the shore, when Jesus 
entered the vessel of their partners. They beheld 
the miraculous draught of fishes ; they assisted to 
secure it; they were astonished at it, and when 
Jesus, after calling Peter and Andrew, called 
them also, " they immediately left the ship and 
their father, and followed him." 



80 JAMES THE GEEATEK. 

Here I cannot help requesting my readers to 
pause a moment, and consider the fortunes, the 
singular, and, if the word were holy enough, I 
would say romantic, fortunes of these four men. 
Simon and Andrew, James and John, brethren of 
two different families, dwell together with their 
parents in a village at the northern extremity of 
a lake or small sea, in the district of Galilee, and 
on the confines of the land of Judaea. The sea 
is a large sea to them, and to them the towns 
which here and there dot its coast, and the light 
barks which, for the purposes of amusement, or 
traffic, or their own calling, skim along its pleas- 
ant waters, are the world. They are fishermen. 
Day by day do they rise up to the contented exer- 
cise of their toil, to throw their nets, to spread 
their sails, to ply their oars, and, when successful 
in pursuit, to dispose of their freight in their 
native village or the neighboring towns, for the 
support of themselves and their families. They 
are friends, partners ; they have joined themselves 
to each other in their humble profession, and 
agreed to share profit and loss, storm and calm, 
together. Their low-roofed dwellings look out on 
each other and on their native lake, and within 
these dwellings are bosoms which throb anxiously 
at their protracted absence, and beat gladly at 
their return. Their boats contain all their wealth, 
and their cottages all that they love. Their fa- 



JAMES THE GREATER. 81 

thers, perhaps their ancestors, were fishers before 
them. They themselves have no idea of a differ- 
ent lot. The only changes on which they calcu- 
late are the changes of the weather and the vicis- 
situdes of their calling ; and the only great inter- 
ruptions of the even courses of their lives, to 
which they look forward, are the annual journeys 
which they take, at the periods of solemn festival, 
to the great city of Jerusalem. Thus they live, 
and thus they expect to live, till they lie down to 
sleep with their fathers, as calmly, as unknowing, 
and as unknown as they. 

Look at them, on the shore of their lake. 
Think not of them as apostles, as holy men ; but 
look at them as they actually were on the morn- 
ing when you first hear of them from the histo- 
rian. They have been toiling through a weary 
night, and have caught nothing ; and now, some- 
what disheartened at their ill success, they are 
engaged in spreading their nets, washing them, 
and preparing them, as they hope, for a more for- 
tunate expedition. Presently surrounded by an 
eager crowd, that teacher approaches whom they 
have before seen, and whose instructions some of 
them have already listened to. With his demean- 
or of quiet but irresistible dignity, he draws to- 
ward the spot where they are employed ; he enters 
Simon's vessel, and prays him to thrust out a lit- 
tle distance from the land ; then he speaks to that 



82 JAMES THE GREATER. 

assembled multitude as never man spake ; then 
he bids Simon launch" out farther, and cast his 
net in the deep ; then follows the overwhelming 
draught of fishes ; and then those four partners, 
filled with wonder and awe, are called to quit 
their boats, and throw by their nets, and become 
fishers of men. 

And now what a change, like the change of a 
dream or of enchantment, has passed over their 
lives, dividing what was from what was to be ! 
It was long before they themselves were aware 
how entire and how stupendous it was. In a 
few years they are to be the principal actors in 
the most extraordinary events of recorded time. 
Home, kindred, country, are to be forsaken for- 
ever. Their nets may hang and bleach in the 
sun ; their boats may rot piecemeal on the shore ; 
for the owners of them are far away, sailing over 
seas to which that of Genesareth is a pond ; 
exciting whole cities and countries to wonder 
and tumult ; answering before kings ; imprisoned, 
persecuted, tortured ; their whole existence a 
storm, and a greater one than ever swept over 
their lake. On the peaceful shore of that lake 
even their bones may not rest. Their ashes are 
to be separated from the ashes of their kindred. 
Their blood is to be sprinkled on foreign soils ; 
the headsman and executioner are to preside 
over their untimely obsequies. A few years 



JAMES THE GREATER. 80 

more, and the fame and the doctrine of these 
fishermen have gone out* into all lands. Magnifi- 
cent churches are called by their names. King- 
doms adopt them for their tutelar saints ; and the 
men who claim to succeed to the office of one of 
them rule for centuries over all civilized king- 
doms with a despotic and overshadowing sway, 
and by virtue of that claim give away a conti- 
nent, a world, which, when their predecessor 
lived, was entirely unknown. History tells us of 
a fisherman of Sicily who was raised to that 
island's throne ; but who will compare that or 
any earthly throne to the twelve thrones which 
were set up over the twelve tribes of Israel? 
What is a king of Sicily to an apostle of Christ? 
A wonderful man has risen up in our own, as we 
call it, wonderful time, — risen up from a moder- 
ate station to the empire of Europe ; and yet 
the eight volumes which another wonderful man 
has written of that emperor's deeds and fortunes 
have not preserved, and cannot preserve, such a 
name for his hero as is secured by hardly more 
than eight lines, which tell us of those men 
who first fished for their living on the sea of 
Galilee, and then were called to be apostles of 
Christ. 

My digression has led me far away, over dis- 
tant countries and through many years. Let us 
return to the land of Judasa, and the history of 



84 JAMES THE GREATER. 

James. We ascertain that, among the twelve, 
he was one of those who were the most honored 
by the confidence of Jesus. With his former 
partner Simon, and his brother John, he was se- 
lected, as we have already seen, to accompany 
his Lord on several very important occasions ; 
such as that of the resurrection of Jairus's daugh- 
ter, the transfiguration, and the agony in the 
garden. It was perhaps on the strength of this 
manifest confidence, and of her own services, 
that Salome, the mother of James and John, 
made that ambitious and truly maternal request 
to Jesus, that her sons might sit on his right 
and left hand in his kingdom ; that is, enjoy the 
two highest dignities next to his own, when he, as 
the Messiah, should mount the throne of Israel. 

This is another instance of the universal mis- 
apprehension which then prevailed, and from 
which the disciples of Jesus were not free, con- 
cerning the office of the expected Messiah. It 
was with a complete understanding of this mis- 
apprehension, that Jesus now answered the de- 
ceived and partial mother: "Ye know not what 
ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I 
shall drink of, and to be baptized with the bap- 
tism that I am baptized with ? Will you partake 
wholly of my lot ? will you be able to adhere to 
me through every adversity, and share all my 
toils and dangers with me?" The brothers, 



JAMES THE GREATER. 85 

whom in reality Jesus addressed, and through 
whose instigation it was that their mother had 
spoken to him, now answered him, under the 
persuasion that they could readily undergo a few 
trials in his service, in order to be at length 
advanced to great dignity under him, " We are 
able." How full of melancholy meaning is the 
reply of our Saviour ! " Ye shall drink indeed 
of my cup, ye shall drain its full measure of 
sufferings to the dregs ; and be baptized with the 
baptism that I am baptized with, even the waters 
of violent death ; but to sit on my right hand 
and on my left, to prescribe your rank and de- 
gree in this world or the next, is not mine to 
give ; it shall be given to those for whom it is 
prepared of my Father." As soon as the other 
disciples heard of the ambitious application of the 
sons of Zebedee, they were moved with indig- 
nation against them ; but their Master, to quell 
their rising jealousy and ill-will, told them that 
the princes of the Gentiles, merely temporal gov- 
ernors, did indeed exercise that authority which 
they were so anxious to possess ; but that it 
should not be so among them, but that they who 
would be great, truly great, among them, should 
minister the most kindly to each other's wishes 
and necessities ; for in his kingdom that man 
would be chief in estimation and place, who was 
chief in benevolence, usefulness, and virtue. 



86 JAMES THE GREATER. 

The brothers are again exhibited to us in no 
very amiable light. "We read in the ninth chap- 
ter of the Gospel of Luke, that, when the time 
approached in which Jesus was to finish his mis- 
sion on earth, he set out to go from Galilee to 
Jerusalem ; and as his way led through Samaria, 
he sent messengers before him to a Samaritan 
village, to prepare for his hospitable reception. 
The Samaritans, knowing that he was going up 
to the feast of the Passover, and piqued that he 
should pass by their own temple, which was the 
rival of that of Jerusalem, would not receive him. 
The anger of James and John was kindled by 
this rudeness, and they said to Jesus, " Lord, wilt 
thou that we command fire to come down from 
heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did ? 
But he turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye 
know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For 
the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, 
but to save them." The evangelist adds, in words 
simply descriptive of our Saviour's gentleness and 
forbearance, " And they went to another village." 

We may collect, from these notices, that James 
was disposed to be ambitious and passionate ; 
somewhat resembling Peter in these respects, as 
also in his real attachment to his Master. We 
can with difficulty suppose that his brother John 
heartily joined him on the above-mentioned occa- 
sions, because his character, as we shall see here- 



JAMES THE GKEATER. 87 

after, was of a very gentle order ; and therefore 
it is probable that he was prevailed upon by the 
more vehement and energetic James to concur 
in his sentiments and projects at those times. It 
can hardly be regretted, however, that these ex- 
posures of human infirmity took place, when we 
advert to the excellent precepts on the subjects 
of ambition and revenge which they drew from 
the Saviour. And it is likewise to be observed, 
that, with all his gentleness, John had a great 
deal of zeal, and, before that zeal was chastened 
by the influence and example of his Master, 
might have often displayed it without knowledge. 
Beside which, we not unfrequently see that the 
gentlest and most amiable have the keenest sense 
of injustice, and that, when they are roused to 
indignation, they are greatly roused. It may 
have been so with John. At any rate, he shared 
with his brother in the appellation of Boanerges, 
or Sons of Thunder, which Mark, in his catalogue 
of the twelve, informs us was the surname be- 
stowed on them by Jesus, and which seems to 
have reference to the heat of their temper; 
though by some interpreters it is supposed to 
signify their powers of eloquence. 

In the Book of Acts we hear of James but 
once, after his name is given in the enumeration 
of the eleven apostles ; and then it is to hear of 
his death. " Herod the king stretched forth his 



88 JAMES THE GREATER. 

hand to vex certain of the Church ; and he killed 
James, the brother of John, with the sword." 
This Herod was Herod Agrippa, the grandson 
of Herod the Great, in whose reign Christ was 
born. He was a distinguished favorite of the 
Roman emperors, Caligula and his successor 
Claudius, though a strict and zealous observer 
of the Jewish law. On entering upon his gov- 
ernment, he was desirous of doing something to 
please the Jewish populace, and for that end 
began to persecute the infant Christian Church, 
selecting for a principal victim James, the brother 
of John. We are informed by Clemens Alex- 
andrinus, that, as the apostle was led forth to the 
place of execution, the person who had accused 
him was so touched with the courage and con- 
stancy which he displayed, that he repented of 
what he had done, came and fell down at his 
feet, and earnestly begged pardon for what he 
had said against him. St. James tenderly raised 
him up, kissed him, and said to him, " Peace be 
to thee, my son, and the pardon of thy faults." 
At this, his former accuser publicly professed 
himself a Christian, and so both were beheaded 
at the same time. Not long after this martyr- 
dom, Herod suffered a miserable death, as is re- 
lated in Acts xii. 23, and more at large by Jose- 
phus in the nineteenth book of his Antiquities.* 

* The three Herods are connected in an unenviable manner 



JAMES THE GREATER. 89 

Though not the first Christian martyr, James 
was the first of the apostles who suffered martyr- 
dom ; the first among the twelve, who, in fulfil- 
ment of that solemn prediction, was called to 
drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism 
of their Master ; the first who manifested to the 
world that it was beyond the power of death itself 
to shake their fidelity to him.* If he was not 
spared to labor much for the Church, he was 
soon permitted to edify it by his sufferings, and 
was called kindly and early to his reward in 
heaven. 

He is the James who is called by the Span- 
iards St. James of Compostella, and honored as 
their patron saint. They receive with general 
faith a wild and singular legend, which gives 
an account of the manner in which they became 
possessed of his^remains. According to this story, 
the apostles at Jerusalem sent the body in a ves- 

with the early history of Christianity, each as a shedder of inno- 
cent blood. The first, Herod the Great, murdered the Innocents 
of Bethlehem ; the second, Herod Antipas, beheaded John the 
Baptist ; and the third slew James, and intended to have slain 
Peter. These circumstances are commemorated in the following 
Latin couplet : — 

" Herodes Magnus pueros, Antipa Joannem, 
Teqvte, Jacobe, Agrippa necat, Petrum et capit idem." 

* He is therefore called the Apostolic Protomartyr ; Stephen 
being the Protomartyr, or first martyr, of the whole Christian 
Church. 



90 JAMES THE GREATER. 

sel with Ctesiphon, whom they ordained bishop 
of Spain. The vessel went directly to a port in 
that kingdom, without the assistance of oars or 
pilot, guided only by its holy, though lifeless bur- 
den, which, on its arrival, was miraculously 
taken away and buried, and after a great many 
wonders, was at last translated to Cornpostella,* 
where it still abides, the object of constant pil- 
grimage, and the worker of countless miracles. 
Cave, after giving this legend rather more at 
length, observes : " This is the sum of the ac- 
count, call it romance or history, which I do not 
desire to impose any further upon the reader's 
faith than he shall find himself disposed to believe 
it." It is a pity that such stories as this should 
be connected with the names of the holy apostles. 
It would be more a pity, however, if it were more 
difficult to separate legends from history, and 
falsehood from truth. 

Ferdinand II. of Spain instituted a military 
order in honor of this apostle. His festival is on 
the 26th of July. 

* It is said by some, that this place was first called Ad Jaco- 
bum Apostolum ; then Giacomo Postolo ; then, by contraction, 
Cornpostella. 



JOHN. 

We now come to John, the brother of James 
the elder, and the last named, though certainly 
not the last in merit, of those four friends and 
partners, the fishermen of Bethsaida. The par- 
ticulars of his call to be an apostle of Christ 
have already been related, together with some 
other circumstances respecting him, in the lives 
of Peter and James. We have seen that he 
ardently loved his Master ; that he was distin- 
guished by that Master's peculiar regard ; and 
that, although he was sometimes betrayed into 
unworthy expressions of ambition and anger, for 
which he was justly reprimanded, his disposition 
was remarkably amiable, gentle, and affection- 
ate. 

There is not much told of him, individually, 
until towards the closing scenes of our Saviour's 
ministry and life. At the last supper, which he 
and Peter had been sent to prepare, we are told 
that " there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of 
his disciples whom Jesus loved." This disciple 
was John himself; who was so fond of the dis- 



92 JOHN. 

tinction which his Master's attachment conferred 
on him, or, to speak more properly, was so grate- 
fully sensible of the value of the attachment it- 
self, that he continually speaks of himself, in his 
history, as the disciple whom Jesus loved, — a title 
which he surely would not have assumed unless 
it had been really conferred on him. His place 
at the supper is an evidence that he was high in 
the favor of Jesus. He was leaning or lying on 
his bosom ; that is, he was the next below him, 
and, as it was the custom of the ancients to re- 
cline at their meals, his head was brought in con- 
tact with his Master's breast, — a situation which 
used always to be reserved by the host at an en- 
tertainment for the person whom he most hon- 
ored or esteemed. It was while he was thus lean- 
ing, that Simon Peter beckoned to him that he 
should ask of Jesus who it was who should 
betray him. John did as he was requested, and 
Jesus showed him who the traitor was by giving 
Judas a sop. All this seems to have been done 
in private, and apart from the knowledge of the 
other disciples, and proves the great measure 
of condescension and confidence which was ex- 
ercised by the Master toward this his favorite 
follower. 

After Jesus was betrayed and seized, John is 
supposed to have been that other disciple who 
went with Peter to the palace of the high priest, 



JOHN. 93 

and gained him admittance there by means of 
his acquaintance with that dignitary.* However 
this may be, he was the only one of the twelve 
who had the fortitude to attend his beloved Mas- 
ter to the cross. How touchingly is it manifested 
on this awful occasion, that the softest natures 
are often the noblest and most fearless too ; and 
that those which are apparently the most daring 
and masculine may yet shrink away in the time 
of peril and distress ! Who, in that hour of 
darkness, — darkness in the heavens and in the 
hearts of men, — who, in that hour of abandon- 
ment, when even the Son of God cried out that 
he was forsaken, — who, of all his followers, were 
with him then, to support him by their sympathy, 

*"That disciple was known unto the high priest." John 
xviii. 15. The early writers busy themselves to find out in what 
manner John became acquainted with Caiaphas. Jerome says, 
that he belonged to some order of nobility; which, however, 
seems to be very inconsistent with the occupation of his father. 
Mcephorus relates, that he sold his paternal estate in Galilee to 
the high priest, and with the money purchased a fair house in 
Jerusalem, and so became intimate with him. These stories 
seem to me, like many other similar ones, to prove two things : 
one, that the early Christian writers were exceedingly anxious to 
explain the slightest hints in the Gospel histories ; the other, that 
they were much too apt to write down the first report which came 
to their ears, glad to catch something, and not careful to sift the 
truth, or, rather, too ready to sacrifice truth to the gratification 
of a minute and inordinate, though not perhaps absolutely idle, 
curiosity. Hence the contradictory statements with which their 
works are full. 



94 JOHN. 

and prove to him their love? In the midst of 
scoffing soldiers and brutal executioners, under 
the lowering sky, and just below the frightful 
cross, we behold four weeping females,* and one 
disciple, the youngest and the gentlest of the 
twelve, braving the horrors of this place of blood, 
braving the anger of those in authority and the 
insults of those who do their bidding, determined 
to be near their friend and Master in his agonies, 
and ready, on the spot and at the moment, to 
share them. And what is it that braces up the 
nerves of this feeble company to such a singular 
pitch of fortitude and daring ? The simple but 
unconquerable strength of affection ; the generous 
omnipotence of their attachment and gratitude. 
In the might of their love they ascend the hill of 
Calvary, and take their station beneath the cross ; 
hearing nothing amidst all that tumult but the 
promptings of their devoted hearts ; seeing noth- 
ing but their dying Lord ; remembering nothing 
but that he was dear to them, and that he was in 
misery. 0, how loftily does courage like this 
rise above that ruder and earthly courage which 
rushes to the battle-field, and is crowned with 

* They were Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary 
the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome the mother 
of James the Greater and of John. There were other women in 
company with them, but these four probably stood nearer the 
cross than the rest. 



JOHN. 95 

the applauses of the world ! It calls for none of 
those excitements and stimulants from without 
which goad rough spirits into madness, but relies 
on those resources that are within, those precious 
stores and holy powers which are the strength of 
a single and faithful breast. That is the courage 
of the animal, this is of the soul. It is pure, it 
is divine. To say all in one word, it was such 
as moved the complacent regard of the Saviour 
himself, even in the height of his sufferings. 
Hanging on the cross, bleeding and exhausted, 
yet when he saw his mother, and the disciple 
standing by whom he loved, he was touched by 
their constancy ; his thoughts were recalled to 
earth ; the domestic affections rushed into his 
bosom ; and with a tender care which provided at 
once a protection for his parent and a reward for 
his friend, " he saith unto his mother, Woman, 
behold thy son ! Then saith he to the disciple, 
Behold thy mother ! " Where was there ever so 
affecting a bequest as that which was then made, 
when love and filial piety triumphed over suffer- 
ing ? Where was there ever so affecting an 
adoption as that which then took place, when 
attachment and fidelity triumphed over fear ? 
The last earthly care of Jesus was accomplished. 
His mother was confided to the disciple whom 
he best loved. The favorite disciple eagerly ac- 
cepted the honorable and precious charge ; for, 



96 JOHN. 

" from that hour," as we are told by himself, he 
"took her unto his own home." 

The whole scene is one of unrivalled pathos. 
Had it taken place in a quiet chamber, and by 
the side of a peaceful death-bed, it would have 
moved us ; but how singularly and solemnly does 
it come in, a sweet and melting interlude, in the 
midst of that wild and appalling conflict, under 
the open and frowning heaven! It is like one 
of those hushed pauses between the fits of a 
midnight storm, when the elements wait, and 
pity seems pleading with wrath, ere the war and 
the turmoil begin again. 

It would appear that the enemies of our Lord 
were satisfied, for that time, with his destruction ; 
for we do not read that John, or the females who 
were with him, suffered any harm on account of 
their fearless exposure. It is probable also that 
the prodigies which succeeded the death of Jesus 
deterred his executioners from pursuing any fur- 
ther their work of blood. 

On the morning of the resurrection, Mary 
Magdalene having gone to the sepulchre early, 
and observed that the stone was taken away from 
its mouth, announced this fact to Simon Peter 
and to John, who both ran toward the spot. John 
outran Peter, and came first to the sepulchre, 
and, stooping down, saw the linen clothes in which 
his Master had been buried ; but he went not in. 



JOHN. 97 

Then Peter came up, and went in, and then 
John followed him. Why the latter did not go 
in immediately does not appear from the history ; 
nor is it easy to form a conjecture ; for he was 
certainly equal to Peter, both in courage and 
attachment to his Master. Perhaps in the mere 
agitation of his feelings he delayed till Peter 
arrived; who no sooner came up, than, with his 
characteristic promptness, he descended into the 
sepulchre where his crucified Lord had been 
deposited, in order, it may be, that he might ask 
forgiveness, even of his remains, for having so 
shamefully denied him. 

A passage in John's own account of this visit 
to the tomb of Jesus renders it probable that he 
was the first person who believed in the resurrec- 
tion of his Lord. "Then went in also that other 
disciple, who came first to the sepulchre, and he 
saw, and believed " ; that is, believed that Jesus 
had arisen from the dead. Nor is this obvious 
interpretation contradicted by the succeeding 
verse : " For as yet they knew not the Scripture, 
that he must rise again from the dead." By the 
word " they " is not meant Peter and John par 
ticularly, but all the disciples. The belief was 
not yet received among them, that their Master 
was to rise from the dead ; and therefore it was 
a remarkable circumstance, and one worthy of 
being recorded, that John was the first who re- 



98 JOHN. 

membered the predictions of Jesus, and acknowl- 
edged their fulfilment. So unprepared were the 
disciples for his resurrection, that Peter, who 
first saw that the tomb was empty, did not think 
of ascribing the fact to its true cause. It was 
into the mind of the beloved disciple that the 
light first broke. He first believed the glorious 
truth, that death was vanquished by the Son of 
God, and that Jesus of Nazareth was the Prince 
of Life. 

When Jesus appeared to his disciples for the 
third time after his resurrection, and at the close 
of his solemn address to Peter intimated to him 
that he should die a violent death, that disciple, 
seeing John just behind, desired to know what 
his lot was to be. The answer of Jesus was, 
"If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that 
to thee ? " This answer caused a saying to go 
abroad that John should not die ; but we shall 
presently see what was the probable meaning of 
our Saviour's prophetic words. 

In the Book of Acts we again meet with John 
in company with Peter, when the lame man was 
healed at the Beautiful Gate. This act of mercy 
and divine power occasioned their imprisonment. 
They were brought together before the council 
of priests and scribes ; they were both charged 
to teach no more in the name of Jesus ; they 
both nobly refused to obey ; and they were both 



JOHN. 99 

dismissed by the council, who were afraid at that 
time to punish them. It is pleasing to see those 
who had formerly been partners in a lowly but 
honest calling, thus continuing to toil hand in 
hand, in their more exalted profession of fishers 
of men. It is an exhibition of Christian friend- 
ship which should not pass unnoticed. On one 
other occasion they were united in their holy 
labors, when they were sent by the apostles on 
the mission to Samaria ; after which we hear no 
more of John in the historical portion of the 
Scriptures. 

All early testimonies agree, however, that he 
was spared to a great age, and outlived all the 
apostles; earnestly occupied, while his strength 
remained, in the service of his Master and the 
promotion of his religion. It is said by some 
writers that he preached to the Parthians ; and 
it is certain that he dwelt for some time at Ephe- 
sus, where Mary, his adopted mother, whom he 
had constantly taken care of, according to the 
solemn testament of her own son, is supposed by 
some to have ended her days. It is more proba- 
ble, however, as expressly stated by Eusebius, 
that she died before John left Judaea, about fifteen 
years after the Ascension of Jesus. 

In the year of our Lord TO, and when John 
was about seventy years of age, the destruction 
of Jerusalem, by Titus, took place. It is under- 



100 JOHN. 

stood by commentators generally, that it was this 
event to which Jesus referred, when he intimated 
that John should tarry till his coming. If so, 
the prediction was remarkably fulfilled ; for this 
disciple was the only one of the twelve who lived 
to see that once proud city utterly overthrown, 
her glorious temple destroyed, and the very 
ground on which it stood ploughed up by the 
hands of heathen. 

Between the years 90 and 100, and in the 
reign of the Emperor Domitian, he was banished 
to the Isle of Patmos, in the iEgean Sea. Here 
he wrote the Book of the Revelation ; and here 
he remained till the death of Domitian, whose 
successor, Nerva, recalled those who had been 
banished for their faith in the preceding reign. 
He then returned to Ephesus, where he is said 
to have written his Gospel, and where he died a 
natural and peaceful death, at the extreme old 
age of one hundred years. According to Epi- 
phanius, he died at the age of ninety-four, in the 
one hundredth year of the Christian era ; a cal- 
culation which makes him six years younger than 
our Lord. But others say that he lived to the 
age which was first mentioned ; and others again 
assert that his life was protracted beyond that 
term. All agree, however, that he was more 
than ninety at his death. He was spared to bear 
the longest, as his brother James was called to 



JOHN. 101 

bear the earliest witness, of all the apostles, to 
the truth of Christ.* 

He left several writings behind him, which 
have been preserved in the Church from age to 
age, and which of themselves bear witness to 
the affectionate mildness of his character. His 
Gospel was written after the three others ; whicli 
accounts for its omitting many things which they 
relate, and relating many things which they omit. 
It is John alone who tells us of the resurrection 
of Lazarus ; of Christ's washing his disciples' 
feet ; and especially of those divine discourses 
which he held with them just before he was be- 
trayed, and which were treasured up in the faith- 
ful memory and kindred heart of the beloved 
disciple, with a minuteness which proves how 
deeply he had been impressed by them. 

The Book of the Revelation, which antiquity 
also ascribes to John, though not with an entirely 
unanimous voice, has both exercised and baffled 
as much critical ingenuity and research as ever 
were bestowed on any writing in the world. The 
majority of its interpreters have regarded it as a 
series of particular prophecies ; and these sup- 

* So respectable a writer as Chrysostom asserts, in one of his 
sermons, that John was an hundred years old when he wrote his 
Gospel, and that he lived twenty years -afterwards. But this is 
worthy of but little credit. Again, many of the ancients entei-- 
tained the notion that this apostle never died, but was translated, 
like Enoch and Elias. 



102 JOHN. 

posed prophecies have been applied to so many 
events, past and to come, that the reader is at 
last convinced that the truth does not even lie 
between the differing hypotheses. It may be 
that its splendid visions are really of a prophetic 
nature, and that they are not yet accomplished. 
But perhaps the most rational theory is that 
which several learned men have adopted, and 
which supposes that the whole Book of the Reve- 
lation is a general prediction, in the form of a 
religious drama, of the glorious success of Chris- 
tianity in the world, and its triumph over its 
numerous foes, without any reference to the 
political condition of certain states and empires, 
or to the downfall of particular hierarchies or 
heresies. This opinion has been explained and 
supported by the German professor, Eichorn, in 
a commentary on the Revelation ; and in earlier 
times had been maintained by able expositors, 
and espoused by no less a man than the poet 
Milton, who thus speaks in his Reason of Church 
G-overnment urged against Prelaty. " And the 
Apocalypse of St. John is the majestic image 
of a high and stately tragedy, shutting up and 
intermingling her solemn scenes and acts with a 
sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping sym- 
phonies ; and this my opinion, the grave authority 
of Pareus, commenting that book, is sufficient to 
confirm." But whatever difference there may be 



JOHN. 103 

concerning the intention of this book, there can 
be none with regard to its composition. It is 
undoubtedly a magnificent specimen of holy poet- 
ry ; and reminds us more constantly and strongly 
of the sublimest of the Jewish prophecies than 
any other book in the canon of the New Testa- 
ment. 

Beside the two works already named, we have 
three epistles appearing in the Christian Scrip- 
tures as the productions of the Apostle John. 
That he wrote the one which is called the first, 
there has never been any dispute ; it is univer- 
sally and by the best authorities ascribed to him. 
But the genuineness of the two others was ques- 
tioned at a very early period ; though the balance 
in their favor appeared so great, that they were 
admitted into our present collection of sacred 
books. The controversy need not trouble us, 
however, as the two latter epistles, beside being- 
very short, contain nothing of consequence which 
is not likewise contained in substance, and almost 
precisely iii expression, in the first. This first 
epistle exhibits in a more striking light than do 
the rest of his writings his great amiableness of 
disposition. It is throughout an exhortation — an 
exhortation from the heart and soul and mind and 
strength of the writer — to pure, exalted, Christian 
benevolence ; and its whole drift and spirit may 
be expressed in this single passage from the fourth 



104 JOHN. 

chapter : " God is love ; and he that dwelleth in 
love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 

His merits as a writer are sententiously ex- 
pressed in a passage from Jerome, who says, 
that " he was at once Apostle, Evangelist, and 
Prophet; — Apostle, in that he wrote letters to 
the Churches, as a master; Evangelist, as he 
wrote a book of the Gospel which no other of the 
twelve apostles did, except St. Matthew ; Prophet, 
as he saw the revelation in the island of Patmos, 
where he was banished by Domitian. His Gos- 
pel, too, differs from the rest. Like an eagle he 
ascends to the very throne of God, and says, In 
the beginning was the Word." 

To John, as well as to most of the apostles of 
Christ, are attributed by antiquity both writings 
and actions which are probably apocryphal and 
fabulous. It would be useless for me even to 
give the titles of the former. Of the traditions 
of his actions and miracles, one of the most gen- 
erally known and quoted is the story that, during 
the persecution under Domitian, and just before 
the exile of John to Patmos, he was brought to 
Rome, and there thrown in a caldron of boiling 
oil, from which he came out altogether unhurt. 
In the pictures of him by the old painters, he is 
often represented as holding a cup or goblet, 
from which a serpent is rearing its head. This 
accompaniment refers to another legend respect- 



JOHN. 105 

ing him, by one Prochorus, who tells us that, 
some heretics having presented the apostle with 
a cup of poisoned liquor, he made the sign of the 
cross over it, and all the venom was immediately 
expelled from the vessel, embodied in the visible 
form of a serpent.* 

Stories of this kind would naturally be multi- 
plied in that, or indeed in any age, concerning 
persons whose lives were singularly out of the 
common course, and who were in reality gifted 
with the power of working miracles. The ancient 
writers and fathers were too apt to promulgate 
such legends, without distinguishing them, as care- 
fully as they ought to have done, from accounts 
which were worthy of credit ; and the Church, 
finding how ready and even eager the multitude 
were to receive every tale of wonder, made it a 
part of its policy to cherish their credulity and 
strengthen their delusion. But we, who are of 
a more simple taste, require no such means to 
interest us in the history of a person in every 
way so interesting as the " disciple whom Jesus 
loved." 

One of the best authenticated stories of his 

* There is also generally introduced in the pictures of this 
saint the figure of an eagle. This is because he is supposed 
to be mentioned in the Book of the Revelation as the last of 
the " four beasts " near the throne, who was " like a flying 
eagle." We have seen above, also, that Jerome compares him 

to an eagle. 

5* 



106 JOHN. 

latter days, which is further recommended by- 
its conformity with the known gentleness and 
amiableness of his character, cannot but please 
all readers, and I will therefore insert it. It is 
said that when the infirmities of age so grew 
upon him at Ephesus, that he was no longer able 
to preach to his converts, he used, at every public 
meeting, to be led to the church, and say no 
more to them than these words, " Little children, 
love one another." And when his auditors, 
wearied with the constant repetition of the same 
thing, asked him why he always said this and 
nothing more to them, he answered : " Because it 
was the command of our Lord ; and that if they 
did nothing else, this alone was enough." 

" Such," says Dr. "Watts, in one of his sermons, — 
" such was John the beloved disciple. You may 
read the temper of his soul in his epistles. What 
a spirit of love breathes in every line ! What 
compassion and tenderness to the babes in Christ! 
What condescending affection to the young men, 
and hearty good-will to the fathers, who were then 
his equals in age ! With what obliging language 
does he treat the beloved Gaius, in his third let- 
ter ; and with how much civility and hearty 
kindness does he address the elect lady and her 
children, in the second ! In his younger years, 
indeed, he seems to have had something more of 
fire and vehemence, for which he was surnamed 



JOHN. 107 

A son of thunder. But our Lord saw so much 
good temper in him, mixed with that sprightliness 
and zeal, that he expressed much pleasure in 
his company, and favored him with peculiar hon- 
ors and endearments above the rest. This is 
the disciple who was taken into the holy mount 
with James and Peter, and saw our Lord glorified 
before the time. This is the disciple who leaned 
on his bosom at the holy supper, and was in- 
dulged in the utmost freedom of conversation 
with his Lord. This is the man who obtained 
this glorious title, \ The disciple whom Jesus 
loved ' ; that is, with a distinguishing and par- 
ticular love. As a Saviour he loved them all 
like saints, but as a man he loved St. John like 
a friend ; and when hanging upon the cross, and 
just expiring, he committed his mother to his 
care, — a most precious and convincing pledge of 
special friendship. 

" how happy are the persons who most 
nearly resemble this apostle, who are thus privi- 
leged, thus divinely blessed ! How infinitely are 
ye indebted to God, your benefactor and your 
Father, who has endowed you with so many 
valuable accomplishments on earth, and assures 
you of the happiness of heaven ! It is he who 
has made you fair or wise ; it is he who has 
given you ingenuity, or riches, or perhaps has 
favored you with all these ; and yet has weaned 



108 JOHN. 

your hearts from the love of this world, and led 
you to the pursuit of eternal life. It is he that 
has cast you in so refined a mould, and given you 
so sweet a disposition ; that has . inclined you 
to sobriety and every virtue, has raised you to 
honor and esteem, has made you possessor of all 
that is desirable in this life, and appointed you 
a nobler inheritance in that which is to come. 
What thankfulness does every power of your na- 
tures owe to your God ! that Heaven looks down 
upon you and loves you, and the world around 
you fix their eyes upon you and love you ; that 
God has formed you in so bright a resemblance 
of his own Son, his first-beloved, and has ordained 
you joint heirs of heaven with him." 

Besides the affectionate title which so peculiarly 
connects this disciple with his Master, he is styled 
by ancient writers, " John the Divine," on ac- 
count of the sublimity and spirituality of his writ- 
ings. 

His day is December 27 in the Eoman Cal- 
endar; but the Greeks keep it on the 26th of 
September. And it may here be observed, that 
the Roman and Greek Calendars differ from each 
other in their dates throughout the ecclesiastical 
year. 



PHILIP. 

The fifth named on Matthew's catalogue of 
the apostles is Philip. He was a native of Beth- 
saida, and consequently a townsman of the four 
partners whose histories I have already told. 
" Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of An- 
drew and Peter." We have no certain intelli- 
gence of his parentage or condition, though he 
was probably in the same rank of life with Peter 
and Andrew, James and John, and perhaps of the 
same profession. 

The day after Peter and Andrew had become 
disciples of Christ, we read that " Jesus would go 
forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith 
unto him, Follow me." Though Peter ^ and An- 
drew were the first who appear to have attended 
on the instructions of- Jesus, and to have been 
particularly noticed by him, and are therefore 
termed his first disciples, — and though Andrew 
is styled Protocletos, as having been the first, 
whose name we know, who was invited to visit 
him and converse with him, — it is certain that 
the distinction belongs to Philip of having been 



110 PHILIP. 

the first who received that express and authorita- 
tive call to the apostleship, " Follow me." We 
find this account in the latter portion of the first 
chapter of John's Gospel. And we then read, 
further, that " Philip findeth Nathanael, and saitli 
unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in 
the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Naz- 
areth, the son of Joseph." His conduct in this 
instance is like that of Andrew, as he manifested 
the same readiness to acknowledge Jesus as the 
Messiah, and the same zeal to make known his 
discovery to others. 

This faith and zeal, however, do not continue 
to be, if we may judge from what little the Gos- 
pels relate of Philip, so firm and ardent afterwards 
as they seem to have been at first. When Jesus, 
in order to prove him, asked him where bread 
enough could be bought to feed the five thousand 
who were gathered together on the mountain, 
Philip, either not remembering the miraculous 
power of his Master, or not yet fully convinced 
of its reality, entered into a calculation, and re- 
turned, for answer, that two hundred pennyworth 
of bread would not be sufficient to supply every 
one with a little. And at the last supper, when 
our Lord, was discoursing so divinely to his disci- 
ples, and had said to them, that, if they had known 
him properly, they would have known his Father, 
whom very soon they would both know and see, 



PHILIP. Ill 

Philip was so entirely unconscious of his mean- 
ing, and so blind, notwithstanding his long inti- 
macy with Jesus, — so blind to the presence and 
agency of God in this, his beloved Son, — as to say 
to his Master, " Lord, show us the Father, and 
it sufficeth us." Grieved at his dulness and in- 
sensibility, Jesus returns that sadly reproachful 
answer, " Have I been so long time with you, 
and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? He 
that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; and 
how sayest thou then, Show us the Father ? 
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and 
the Father in me ? The words that I speak unto 
you, I speak not of myself; but the Father that 
dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." As if he 
had said, Is it not evident to you that the power 
which you have seen me exert is more than hu- 
man power? that the wisdom which you have so 
long been hearing from my lips is more than 
human wisdom ? that the Father must have been 
with me, and in me, all this time, or I could not 
have thus acted and spoken ? How can you then, 
who have been one of my constant companions, 
how can you say, Show us the Father? As a 
Jew, you certainly do not expect to see God in 
person ; and how can you behold a brighter 
manifestation of his image and attributes than 
that which you have so long beheld in me ? You 
do not know me, Philip, neither me nor my 
Father. 



112 PHILIP. 

This instance of the apostle's incredulity and 
slowness of apprehension does not prove that he 
was more incredulous and dull than his brethren ; 
it only shows how small the impression was which 
the extraordinary instructions and actions of 
Jesus had as yet produced on the whole twelve. 
They entered into his service with the Jewish 
ideas of a Messiah ; and now, when he was just 
about to leave them, they were almost as ignorant 
of the spirituality of his kingdom as when they 
first joined themselves to him. 

Nothing further is said in the sacred histories to 
assist us in elucidating Philip's character. The 
Book 'of Acts relates nothing concerning him ; 
for we must not confound Philip the Apostle 
with Philip the Deacon or Philip the Evangelist, 
both of whom are there mentioned. The best 
ancient testimony specifies Scythia as the principal 
scene of his apostolical labors ; from which coun- 
try he came at last into Phrygia, and dwelt in 
Hierapolis, the chief city in the western part of 
that province.* There he preached the Gospel 
of his Master, and planted the seeds of faith in 
the midst of idolatry ; and it is said by some, that 
it was by effecting the destruction of an object of 
superstitious worship that he incurred the hatred 

* This city is mentioned by Paul, in his Epistle to the Colos- 
sians iv. 13. It was near to Colosse and Laodicea, and had prob- 
ably been visited by Paul. 



PHILIP. 118 

and persecution of a part of the inhabitants, 
who caused him to be imprisoned and severely 
scourged, and then hung by the neck to a pillar. 
By others, however, he is said to have died a nat- 
ural death. 

By a concurrence of authorities, Philip is stated 
to have been a married man, and to have had 
several daughters. 

The festival of this apostle, according to the 
Calendar of the Western Church, is on the 1st of 
May. 



BAKTHOLOMEW. 

The next in order of the twelve is Bartholo- 
mew. Respecting him there is a still greater 
dearth of information than there is respecting 
Philip ; for there is absolutely nothing told of him 
in the New Testament, unless we resort to the 
supposition, which many scholars have adopted, 
that he is the same person with Nathanael. In 
favor of this supposition there are several argu- 
ments, which form together a body of strong pre- 
sumptive evidence. 

It is observed, in the first place, that the Evan- 
gelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who all place 
Bartholomew on their catalogues of the apostles, 
never mention Nathanael ; and that John, who 
gives the particulars of Nathanael's conversation 
with our Lord, never mentions Bartholomew. 
Secondly, as John acquaints us with the fact that 
Philip led Nathanael to Jesus, so, in the lists of 
the apostles by the other evangelists, Philip and 
Bartholomeiv are constantly joined together as 
companions. " As they were jointly called to the 
discipleship," says Cave, " so they are jointly re- 



BARTHOLOMEW. 115 

ferred to in the Apostolic Catalogue, as afterwards 
we find them joint companions in the writings of 
the Church." Thirdly, it is remarked that Na- 
thanael is introduced, in the company of several 
apostles, in the twenty-first chapter of John's Gos- 
pel, in such a manner as to lead us to suppose 
that he likewise might be one. The passage is 
that which relates to the appearance of Jesus, 
after his resurrection, at the sea of Tiberias ; on 
which occasion Peter swam to him from the ves- 
sel in which he and the rest were fishing. The 
disciples, who were present, are thus named : 
" There were together Simon Peter* and Thom- 
as called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in 
Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other 
of his disciples." Fourthly, the difference in the 
two names, which may at first appear to be an 
argument against this supposition, is rather in its 
favor. Bartholomew signifies the son of Tolmai, 
just as Bartimeus, the blind man whom Jesus re- 
stored to sight, signifies the son of Timeus ; bar 
being the Hebrew word for son. Nathanael, 
therefore, might have also been called Bartholo- 
mew, after his father, just as Simon was called 
Barjonas after his father. Bartholomew could 
hardly have been the only name of the apostle, 
because it is a patronymic ; and when circum- 
stances agree so well, why might not his first 
name have been Nathanael? That John never 



116 BARTHOLOMEW. 

calls Nathanael by the other name of Bartholo- 
mew is no proof that he had no other name ; for 
Matthew, though his other name was Levi, never 
calls himself by that name, throughout the whole 
of his own Gospel. And finally, we are led natu- 
rally to the presumption that Nathanael must have 
been an apostle, not only by the circumstance of 
his being named in the midst of four apostles, but 
by the tenor of the conversation which Jesus held 
with him, and the probability that he was one of 
the very earliest disciples. 

If we are convinced by these considerations 
that Bartholomew was the same person with Na- 
thanael, we of course know something of his 
character and history. We view him as an in- 
habitant of Cana, in Galilee, where was per- 
formed the first miracle of his Lord, soon after 
his interview with him ; as probably called to be 
an apostle on the same day with Philip, by whom 
he was introduced to Jesus ; and as one who was 
characterized by the Saviour, and therefore de- 
servedly, as an " Israelite indeed, in whom there 
was no guile." 

The guilelessness, candor, and honesty of Na- 
thanael, or Bartholomew, were indeed strikingly 
exhibited in all the circumstances of that inter- 
view. Impressed with the idea of his countrymen, 
that Nazareth could not furnish any celebrated 
prophet, and surely not the Messiah, as soon as 



BARTHOLOMEW. 117 

Philip uttered the words, " Jesus of Nazareth, 
the son of Joseph," he exclaimed, " Can there 
any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " But 
when Philip, very wisely, instead of arguing the 
point, simply said, " Come and see," he went at 
once, clearly perceiving the justice of the appeal, 
and determined to put his prejudice, or his opin- 
ion, to the only proper test of experiment. And 
when he had received a small, though to his 
mind sufficient, proof of the superior knowledge 
of Jesus, he gave in his adhesion on the spot, 
saying, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou 
art the king of Israel." Pleased with this readi- 
ness of conviction, the Saviour seems to have 
taken him from this moment into his confidence ; 
for he promised him that he should " see greater 
things than these " ; stronger proofs than the one 
just given of the divinity of his mission ; wonders 
and testimonies so mighty and divine, that heaven 
would appear, as it were, " open, and the angels 
of God ascending and descending upon the Son 
of man." 

Let our prepossessions and prejudices vanish 
as did those of Nathanael, as soon as they are 
touched by the beams of truth. Let us be sin- 
cere, simple, open-hearted, free from guile, as he 
was ; " without partiality and without hypocrisy." 
To such a character belongs by inheritance the 
promise given to Nathanael. He who possesses 



118 BARTHOLOMEW. 

it will see greater things day by day ; he will be 
continually receiving brighter manifestations of 
truth and heaven. 

" The child like faith that asks not sight, 
Waits not for wonder or for sign, 
Believes, because it loves, aright, 

Shall see things greater, things divine. 

" Heaven on that gaze shall open wide, 
And brightest angels to and fro 
On messages of love shall glide 

'Twixt God above and Christ below." 

Nothing is particularly related concerning this 
apostle, by the sacred writers, beside what has 
been already adduced. By early ecclesiastical 
historians, he is said to have carried the Gospel 
as far as India, by which must be meant, as Cave 
thinks, the hither India, which was the country 
bordering upon the Asian Ethiopia, or Chaldea. 
Pantaenus, a Christian philosopher of the latter 
part of the second century, and preceptor of Cle- 
mens of Alexandria, having travelled into Ethio- 
pia, found there, as Eusebius relates, a copy of 
Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew, which had been' 
left there by Bartholomew. Phrygia was also 
for a time the field of the apostle's labors, where 
he met with his former companion, Philip, and at 
the period of his martyrdom narrowly escaped 
crucifixion himself. Lastly, he came to Alba- 
nopolis in the greater Armenia, where he was 



BARTHOLOMEW. 119 

persecuted, and finally crucified, on account of 
his efforts to overthrow the idolatry of the place. 
Some accounts speak of his having been flayed 
alive, previous to his crucifixion. 

Legends and niartyrologies affirm, what we 
need not believe, that his body removed from 
place to place, till it came at last to Rome, where 
it rested, and where it is now deposited, as Ro- 
man Catholics suppose, in a porphyry monument, 
under the Church of St. Bartholomew. 

August the 24th is consecrated to him by the 
Western Church. 



THOMAS. 

The seventh of the twelve is Thomas. In the 
Gospel of John he is styled " Thomas called 
Didynms," but everywhere else simply Thomas. 
It is probable that Didymus is merely an interpre- 
tation into Greek of the Hebrew word " Thomas," 
as they both mean a tivin. And it may be that 
he really was what his name designates him to 
have been.* But we have no certain accounts 
whatever of his early life, nor of the early period 
of his apostleship. 

The first mention which is made of him is on 
a most interesting occasion, and when he appears 
in a most interesting light. Shortly after our 

* "It was customary," says Cave, "with the Jews, when 
travelling into foreign countries, or familiarly conversing with 
the Greeks and Romans, to assume to themselves a Greek 
or a Latin name, of great affinity, and sometimes of the very 
same signification, with that of their own country. Thus our 
Lord was called Christ, answering to his Hehrew title Mas- 
hiach, or the Anointed ; Simon styled Peter, according to that of 
Cephas, which our Lord put upon him ; Tabitha called Dorcas, 
both signifying a goat. Thus our St. Thomas, according to the 
Syriac importance of his name, had the title of Didymus, which 
signifies a twin ; Thomas, which is called Didymus." 



THOMAS. 121 

Lord had escaped from the hands of the Jews, 
who were about to stone him, and had gone away 
beyond Jordan, the sisters of Lazarus, his friend, 
sent to him, informing him that their brother was 
sick. Jesus remained two days, after hearing 
this intelligence, in the place where he was; for 
it was his intention, not to rescue, but to restore 
Lazarus from death, that God might be the more 
glorified; and then he said to his disciples, "Let 
us go into Judaea again." His disciples earnestly 
sought to dissuade him from this, as they thought 
it, rash determination, and said unto him, "Mas- 
ter, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and 
goest thou thither again?" In answer to this 
expostulation, Jesus tells them, in figurative 
speech, that what he had to do must be done in 
its due season, and before the appropriate time 
was past ; and then he adds, " Our friend Laz- 
arus sleepeth ; but I go that I may awake him 
out of sleep." The disciples, understanding him 
literally, answer, that if Lazarus was sleeping, 
he would recover, and therefore it was unneces- 
sary to incur danger, merely for the sake of see- 
ing him. " Then said Jesus unto them, plainly, 
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes 
that I was not there, to the intent ye may be- 
lieve; nevertheless, let us go -unto him." It is 
at this crisis, when the apostles seem to be hes- 
itating between the sense of imminent danger 

6 



122 THOMAS. 

and the feeling of duty to their Master, the one 
holding them back, and the other urging them 
forward, that Thomas advances, faithful, bold, 
and with a mind made up to abide by Jesus at 
all hazards, and says unto his fellow-disciples, 
"Let us also go, that we may die with him." 
His intrepidity in this case had its effect, no 
doubt, on his brethren ; for they all went to 
Bethany, the village of Lazarus, which was only 
about two miles from Jerusalem ; and the result 
was one of the most remarkable and important 
miracles of our Lord ; which was soon followed 
indeed, as the disciples had feared, and as he 
had foreseen, by his own violent death. 

Thomas is again introduced as one of the speak- 
ers on the night of the last supper. As Jesus 
was discoursing to his disciples, endeavoring to 
prepare them for his approaching departure, and 
to lead them to the sublime and consoling truths 
of immortality, he said to them, " Whither I go 
ye know, and the way ye know." Thomas, who 
no more than the rest could believe that the 
Messiah was to die, and to be taken from the 
world, before he had achieved his expected glo- 
ries and the deliverance of Israel, said to him, 
" Lord, we know not whither thou goest ; and 
how can we know the way ? " His thoughts had 
not accompanied his Master's thoughts ; they 
were yet on the earth, groping about there after 



THOMAS. 123 

a destination and a path, though Jesus was point- 
ing so plainly to the mansions of another world, 
and the true and spiritual way which led to them. 
And it was immediately afterwards that Philip, 
too, uttered those words of ignorance which we 
have just now considered, and which show how 
much that light was needed which was soon to 
break in upon them all. 

Once more we hear of Thomas, in a manner 
which marks his character with some strong lines, 
and particularly distinguishes his life. On the 
evening of the resurrection, our Saviour came 
and stood in the midst of the disciples, and showed 
them the wounds in his hands and side, and satis- 
fied them that he was indeed risen from the dead. 
But Thomas was not then with them, and when 
they told him that they had seen the Lord, he 
replied, that unless he not only should see those 
wounds, but be allowed also to touch them and 
put his hand in them, he would not believe. 

There is a boldness and even obstinacy in this 
resolution, which at first is apt to offend us ; but 
on reflection we may find that it was neither 
harsh nor unreasonable. He could not have 
refused his belief as he did, through a want of 
respect or affection for his Master ; because he 
had but a short time before expressed his readi- 
ness to die with him. Neither did he hold in too 
slight regard the testimony of his brethren, con- 



124 THOMAS. 

sidering the circumstances; for it was no com- 
mon matter to which they testified ; in almost 
any other case he would have believed their re- 
port, or the report of a single one of their num- 
ber, but now the event which they related was 
too marvellous in itself, one too momentous in 
its consequences, to be received on the witness 
of men who might not wish to deceive, but who 
nevertheless might themselves be deceived or 
mistaken ; and he would trust to nothing but his 
own senses to bring him decisive evidence of an 
occurrence on which the direction of his whole 
future life depended. 

He thought too, no doubt, that he ought to be 
satisfied of this wonderful fact as well as the rest 
of the disciples, and in the same way ; and he 
was unquestionably right in so thinking. If he 
was hereafter to journey through the world, 
teaching and asserting, with all his powers, and 
in the face of every peril, the resurrection of 
Jesus the Christ, it was needful that he should 
possess a deep conviction of the reality of that 
event, — such a conviction as, in the capacity of a 
companion, friend, pupil, and apostle of Jesus, 
he ought to have, and such a conviction as the 
world would surely require of him. The miracle 
had just occurred, as his brethren told him ; if 
so, why should not he, standing in the same 
situation as they did, and to whom its truth was 



THOMAS. 125 

as important as to them, — why should not he have 
the same evidence as they did ; nay, why should 
he not have more ? Why should he not, not 
only on his own account, but as their represent- 
ative, demand the opportunity of clearing away 
every shadow of doubt which might rest on so 
splendid a truth, both by seeing his risen Lord 
as they had, and touching him with his hands as 
they had not ? 

If we regard the incredulity of Thomas in this 
light, we shall see nothing improper in it, and 
shall be disposed to grant that it was no greater 
than, in his situation, was natural and justifiable. 
In this conclusion we are countenanced by the 
conduct of our Saviour himself, who neither re- 
fuses to show himself to his doubting disciple, 
nor manifests any displeasure at his freedom or 
his unbelief; for the narration of the occurrence 
is thus continued by St. John : " And after eight 
days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas 
with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being 
shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be 
unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach 
hither thy finger, and behold my hajids ; and 
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side ; 
and be not faithless but believing." Startled, 
doubtless, by the sudden appearance of his Mas- 
ter, and affected too by the kind and assuring 
manner in which he is bid to satisfy his doubts 



126 THOMAS. 

completely, Thomas broke out into the exclama- 
tion of wonder and acknowledgment, " My Lord 
and my God ! " His doubts were entirely over- 
come, his faith was now as ardent and lively 
as before his distrust had been cold ; and his 
testimony to the reality of the resurrection is 
perhaps more valuable than any other single tes- 
timony, because it was rendered under such pe- 
culiar circumstances, and by one so honest and so 
sturdy in avowing his scruples, and so candid 
in resigning them. " By touching, in Christ," 
says one of the Fathers, " the wounds of the 
flesh, he has healed, in us, the wounds of unbe- 
lief." 

The exclamation of Thomas, quoted above, has 
held so conspicuous a place, and been so often 
brought forward in theological controversy, that 
I must necessarily dwell for a moment on the 
consideration of its import. By many, though 
by no means by all of those who hold the doc- 
trine of the perfect equality of the Son with the 
Father, it has been adduced as a Scripture proof 
of that equality ; as an acknowledgment by the 
apostle of the Godhead and supreme divinity of 
Jesus Christ. To this interpretation of the pas- 
sage, there seem to me to be insurmountable ob- 
jections. In the first place, the question of the 
Deity of Christ has no concern with the event. It 
was not to be satisfied of the Deity, but of the 



THOMAS. 127 

resurrection of his Master, that Thomas required 
his appearance ; and it was to convince him of 
that resurrection that his Master condescended 
to appear to him. " Except I shall see in his 
hands the print of the nails, and put my finger 
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand 
into his side, I will not believe." Believe what? 
What the disciples had just told him, certainly, 
that they had seen the Lord, that he was truly 
alive, not that he was truly God. Secondly, it is 
difficult to conceive how the appearance of Jesus 
in a human form, just as he had always appeared 
before, and with bodily wounds, just as he had 
been taken from the cross, that is, as a man in all 
respects, could have convinced his disciple, and 
that disciple a Jew, that he was the eternal God. 
The miracle of the resurrection itself could not 
have had this effect, because Thomas had often 
witnessed the miracles of his Master, without once 
confessing that he was God ; and no other evi- 
dence was at this time offered. Thirdly, if Jesus 
was on this occasion acknowledged to be God, it 
might be expected that the writer of the narrative 
should take some notice of the circumstance ; but 
what are his words, immediately after relating 
this event ? " These are written, that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" ; 
not God himself. Fourthly, the exclamation 
itself is abrupt, and without any connection to de- 



128 THOMAS. 

termine precisely its meaning. It might not have 
been addressed to Jesus at all, but to God alone ; 
or the first appellation might have been addressed 
to him, and the second to Heaven ; it was an 
exclamation, in short, of wonder, of ecstatic won- 
der, of ecstatic gratitude, and just such a one as 
any of us would be likely to utter on witnessing 
a similar marvel ; such, for instance, as the resur- 
rection of a dear friend from the grave. Fifthly, 
if the whole exclamation was really addressed to 
Jesus, the term God might well have been ap- 
plied, according to known Jewish usage, and in 
its lower sense, to one who now had manifested 
undeniably that he was the Messiah, the Prince 
of Peace, the Son of God, and the King of Israel. 
Lastly, the answer of Jesus himself excludes the 
supposition that he was addressed as the Supreme 
God. For he said unto his disciple, " Thomas, 
because thou hast seen me thou hast believed ; 
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
believed." Nov/ this must mean, " Because thou 
hast seen me here alive, after my crucifixion and 
burial, thou hast believed that I am raised from 
the dead ; and it is well ; but blessed are they 
who cannot have such evidence of the senses, 
and yet shall believe in the glorious truth, from 
your evidence, and that of your brethren." He 
could not have meant that they were blessed, 
who, though they had not seen him, yet had be- 



THOMAS. 129 

lieved that he was God ; because there is no con- 
nection between the propositions ; because the 
fact of the resurrection of Jesus cannot, to the 
mind of any one, be of itself a proof of his Deity ; 
and because no one thinks of requiring to see 
God, in order to believe that he exists. In con- 
clusion, it must be remembered, that these con- 
siderations are so obvious that they have been 
fully adopted by some of those who still have 
professed their belief, founded on other evidence, 
of the Deity of Christ. 

It cannot be doubted that the decided and 
resolute character of Thomas fitted him emi- 
nently for his apostolic duties. But the accounts 
which we have of his life and works after the 
ascension of his Master, though sufficiently co- 
pious, are too contradictory to claim our entire 
confidence. Some general facts, however, seem 
to be well established, and they are of an exceed- 
ingly interesting character. There is no good 
reason to doubt that this apostle penetrated as 
far into the East with his heavenly mission as to 
the Coromandel and Malabar Coasts of Indostan, 
and even to Taprobane, or Ceylon, visiting and 
preaching in other countries by the way. On 
those coasts he made a great number of converts, 
the descendants of whom, still professing Chris- 
tianity, exist in that part of India at the present 
day, and are called the St. Thomas Christians, 
6* i 



130 THOMAS. 

according to the testimony of Dr. Buchanan, 
Bishop Heber, and other enlightened travellers. 
This is a remarkable confirmation of the general 
statements of early ecclesiastical writers ; and is 
a proof that we may receive many of their princi- 
pal facts, without relying on their minute details 
or marvellous legends. These Christians of St. 
Thomas were known to the Western world in 
early times, but appear to have been lost sight 
of afterwards, till they were again discovered by 
navigators at the commencement of the sixteenth 
century. The see of Borne endeavored to bring 
them under its subjection, but with only partial 
success. A part of them are now Roman Cath- 
olics, but the majority form a church entirely 
independent of the Church of Rome. They 
possess the New Testament in the Syriac lan- 
guage. 

The martyrdom of Thomas is stated to have 
taken place at Malipur or Meliapor, on the Coro- 
mandel coast, nor far from the present city of 
Madras, where he had converted the king of the 
country and many of his subjects, and had built 
a church. The Brahmins were enraged at his 
success, and by one of them he was run through 
the body with a lance, while he was kneeling at 
his devotions before a tomb. He was buried in 
the church which he had built ; but his bones are 
said to have been afterwards translated to Edessa 
in Mesopotamia. 



THOMAS. 131 

The following narrative by Bishop Heber, 
touching these events in the life of St. Thomas, 
is taken from his Journal in India, Yol. III. pages 
212-214: — 

" We went in a carriage to the military station 
of St. Thomas's Mount, eight miles from Madras, 
intending, in our way, to visit the spot marked 
out by tradition as the place where the Apostle 
St. Thomas was martyred. Unfortunately the 
'Little Mount,' as this is called (being a small 
rocky knoll with a Roman Catholic church on 
it, close to Marmalong Bridge in the suburb of 
Meilapoor), is so insignificant, and so much nearer 
Madras than we had been given to understand, 
that it did not attract our attention until too late. 
That it really is the place, I see no good reason 
for doubting ; there is as fair historical evidence 
as the case requires, that St. Thomas preached 
the Gospel in India, and was martyred at a place 
named Milliapoor or Meilapoor. The Eastern 
Christians, whom the Portuguese found in India, 
all agreed in marking out this as the spot, and in 
saying that the bones, originally buried here, had 
been carried away as relics to Syria. They and 
even the surrounding heathen appear to have 
always venerated the spot, as these last still do, 
and to have offered gifts here on the supposed 
anniversary of his martyrdom. And as the story 
contains nothing improbable from beginning to 



132 THOMAS. 

end (except a trumpery fabrication of some relics 
found here by the Portuguese monks about a 
century and a half ago), so it is not easy to ac- 
count for the origin of such a story among men 
of different religions, unless there were some 
foundation for it. 

" I know it has been sometimes fancied that 
the person who planted Christianity in India was a 
Nestorian Bishop named Thomas, not St. Thomas 
the Apostle ; but this rests, absolutely, on no 
foundation but a supposition, equally gratuitous 
and contrary to all early ecclesiastical history, 
that none of the apostles except St. Paul went 
far from Judaea. To this it is enough to answer, 
that we have no reason why they should not have 
done so ; or why, while St. Paul went, or intended 
to go, to the shores of the further West, St. 
Thomas should not have been equally laborious 
and enterprising in an opposite direction. But 
that all the apostles, except the two St. Jameses, 
did really go forth to preach the Gospel in differ- 
ent parts of the world, as it was, a priori, to be 
expected, — that they did so we have the author- 
ity of Eusebius and the old Martyrologies, which 
is at least as "good as the doubts of a later age, 
and which would be reckoned conclusive, if the 
question related to any point of civil history. 
Nor must it be forgotten that there were Jews 
settled in India at a very early period, to convert 



THOMAS. 133 

whom would naturally induce an apostle to think 
of coming hither ; that the passage either from 
the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea is neither long 
nor difficult, and was then extremely common; 
and that it may be, therefore, as readily believed 
that St. Thomas was slain at Meilapoor, as that 
St. Paul was beheaded at Rome, or that Leonidas 
fell at Thermopylae. Under these feelings, I left 
the spot behind with regret, and shall visit it, if I 
return to Madras, with a reverent, though, I hope, 
not a superstitious interest and curiosity. 

" The Larger Mount, as it is called, of St. 
Thomas, is a much more striking spot, being an 
insulated cliff of granite, with an old church on 
the summit, the property of those Armenians who 
are united to the Church of Rome. It is also 
dedicated to St. Thomas, but (what greatly proves 
the authenticity of its rival) none of the sects of 
Christians or Hindoos consider it as having been 
in any remarkable manner graced by his presence 
or burial. It is a picturesque little building, and 
commands a fine view." 

A legend is quoted by Cave, from Gregory of 
Tours, concerning the tomb of this apostle at 
Malipur, which, though deserving of no more 
credit than other legends of the same class, is 
pleasing to the imagination. A lamp, says the 
legend, hangs before his tomb, which burns 
perpetually, needing no oil, and undisturbed by 



134 THOMAS. 

the wind or any accident whatever. Possibly a 
gaseous fountain might once have existed there, 
which would be a sufficient origin for the story ; 
or some deception may have been practised by 
the priests. 

The 21st of December is St. Thomas's day in 
the Western Calendar. 



MATTHEW. 

Matthew places himself the eighth on his list, 
and styles himself " the Publican." This avowal 
of his profession is at once a proof of his humility 
and his good sense. He had the meekness to set 
himself down exactly what he was, notwithstand- 
ing the contempt which the confession might 
bring upon him ; and he had the wisdom to per- 
ceive that there was no rank or occupation in 
life, however low, which could change the nature 
of true worth, or really disgrace an honest and 
virtuous man. 

To the Jews, above all other people, publican 
was an odious name. There is a use of this 
word among us, a low and improper use, which 
has nothing to do with its true signification and 
its Scripture sense ; for a publican does not mean, 
in the Gospels, an innkeeper, but a tax-gatherer, or 
a receiver of the tribute imposed by government. 
The Romans employed these receivers of tribute, 
or publicans, in all their provinces, and, among 
the rest, in Judsea. Now, to pay tribute was not 
only a constant acknowledgment and badge of 



136 MATTHEW. 

subjection and servitude, but to the Jews it was 
something more galling still, because it wounded 
their religious as well as their political pride. It 
was a thought of pure, unmitigated bitterness, 
that the people of God should thus pass periodi- 
cally under the hated yoke of idolaters, and, as 
they would call them in their haughty exclusive- 
ness, barbarians. The office itself being thus 
detestable, it may be conceived how those per- 
sons must have been looked upon who held and 
exercised it. 

There were two orders, however, among the 
publicans, — the receivers general, who had depu- 
ties under them, and these deputies themselves. 
The former were usually selected from the best 
classes of society ; but the latter were reckoned 
ignoble and contemptible, even by the Gentiles, 
and were, as a body, vulgar, rapacious, and un- 
merciful. Some one asked Theocritus which was 
the most cruel of all beasts ; and he answered, 
"Among the beasts of the wilderness, the. bear 
and the lion ; among the beasts of the city, the 
publican and the parasite." Of the higher order 
of publicans at Jerusalem one is probably men- 
tioned in the Gospel of Luke, by the name of 
Zacchseus, who is there said to be " the chief 
among the publicans," and a rich man. Of the 
lower order were those who are so frequentty 
classed in the Scriptures with sinners ; and of 



MATTHEW. 137 

this order was Matthew. They were all, high 
and low, for the reasons just given, regarded with 
abhorrence by the Jews, and treated as a profane 
and outcast set of people. " Let him be unto 
thee as a heathen man and a publican " is a 
phrase which expresses strongly the universal 
ban which was suspended over them. We are 
told that, though a publican might be a Jew, he 
was hardly recognized as such by his country- 
men ; that he was not allowed to enter the tem- 
ple, nor give testimony in courts of justice ; that 
the gifts, even, which his devotion might prompt 
him to offer, were rejected from the altar of Je- 
hovah, as unclean and abominable. 

Bearing these things in mind, we can now es- 
timate the self-denial of the apostle, who, with a 
firm pen, could write himself down, " Matthew, 
the Publican." 

In the second chapter of Mark, he is said to be 
the son of Alpheus ; but whether this Alpheus is 
the same with the father of James the Less, or 
another individual, is uncertain. His place of 
residence was in Capernaum, or somewhere near 
it, on the sea of Tiberias. Though he constantly 
calls himself Matthew, he is called Levi by the 
other evangelists ; and it is for this reason that 
Levi and Matthew have been supposed by some 
celebrated scholars to be two different persons. 
But the circumstances of Matthew's call to be a 



138 MATTHEW. 

disciple, as related in his own Gospel, are so pre- 
cisely similar to those which attend the call of 
Levi, as related in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, 
that the predominant opinion has always been, 
that Matthew and Levi were only two names for 
one and the same person. 

Though a publican, of an inferior rank, be- 
longing to a class of men who were considered 
vile, and who generally deserved their reputation, 
Matthew was an upright and religious man ; and 
there was one of his countrymen, if there were 
no more, who could separate the man from the 
profession, and fearlessly engage him for his 
companion and friend. It was he who saw him 
sitting in his place of business, or at the receipt 
of custom, as it is called, and said unto him, 
"Follow me."* These were words, which, from 
those lips, could not be uttered in vain ; and the 
humble publican, who probably had before heard 
the discourses of Jesus, and heard them with 
admiration, and seen also some of the wonders 
which he had done, immediately arose and fol- 
lowed him. 

* It appears from the relation of Mark, in the second chapter 
of his Gospel, that Matthew's official station was at the seaside, 
where he was sitting when Jesus called him. Commentators say- 
that the particular duty of Matthew as a publican was to gather 
the customs of commodities which came by the sea of Galilee, and 
the tribute which passengers were to pay who went by water 
According to this statement, he was a toll-gatherer. 



MATTHEW. 139 

Our Saviour, after having called Matthew, 
went to his house ; and there his new disciple 
prepared a supper for him ; and many publicans 
and sinners, the former associates of Matthew, 
came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. 
When some Pharisees, who were present, saw 
this, they said to the disciples, " Why eateth your 
Master with publicans and sinners? But when 
Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They who 
are whole need not a physician, but they who are 
sick. But go ye, and learn what that meaneth, 
I will have mercy, and not sacrifice ; for I am not 
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent- 
ance." 

In both of these incidents, the spirit of Chris- 
tianity and the character of its founder are con- 
spicuous. The call of a publican to be a follower 
of Christ and a herald of his religion was a sign 
of the sublime superiority of the new faith, in its 
impartiality and mercy, over the bigotries of the 
old ; and evinces the discernment and the inde- 
pendence of Jesus in selecting a worthy disciple 
from an order of men among whom common 
opinion had pronounced that there was no worth 
to be found. And in sitting down to eat — that 
greatest token of familiarity — in the house of this 
publican, and with a mixed company of reputed 
sinners, Jesus again manifests the universal be- 
nevolence of his temper and his doctrine. To 



140 MATTHEW. 

the hypocritical Pharisees, it was indeed- a strange 
and scandalous thing, that one who set up as the 
Messiah of Israel, and the purifier of its ordi- 
nances, should take a publican to be a pupil, and 
break bread with other publicans and notorious 
sinners; but how well are their narrow preju- 
dices and their supercilious and uncharitable self- 
righteousness rebuked by the steadfast reply of 
the Saviour ! u The religion which I would in- 
culcate," as the reply may be paraphrased, " em- 
braces in its pure mercy the whole family of 
man ; it draws no impassable line between the 
privileged and the profane ; it leaves none to de- 
spair of Heaven's favor and acceptance. If ye 
are perfect, if ye are whole, my errand is not to 
you ; go ; go to your temple and perform your 
rites ; but when there, study the meaning of that 
scripture, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. 
As for these, they are sick ; they need a phy- 
sician, and I must heal them ; ye yourselves say 
that they are sinners, and why shall I not call 
them to repentance, and save them ? " 

With what has been now told from the Gospels 
concerning Matthew, we must rest contented ; 
but even from these slight memorials we shall 
gain a highly favorable impression of his charac- 
ter. In his depressed condition as a publican, 
he seems to have learned the valuable lesson of 
humility ; and thus to have become " almost a 



MATTHEW. 141 

Christian," before he was a follower of Christ. 
Among his vile companions, whom public oblo- 
quy had made yet more vile than their habits 
and their occupation would have made them, he 
was upright, honest, merciful, uncontaminated. 
His integrity appears doubly bright by contrast, 
amidst the dark examples and fearful tempta- 
tions which were all around it like clouds ; and 
his virtue, reared among quicksands and waves, 
proved, simply by its being and standing there, 
how very deeply and strongly its foundations 
were laid. It is further to be remarked, that 
though he was the writer of one of the Gospel 
histories, he says nothing more of himself than 
that he was called to follow Jesus, while he was 
sitting in his office, and that he afterwards enter- 
tained his Master at his house ; and this latter 
circumstance he only mentions in order that he 
may introduce the answer of Jesus to the Phari- 
sees. We could have no better evidence than 
this of his disinterestedness and modesty. 

His Gospel is everywhere distinguished by 
plain good sense and manly simplicity. It was 
written, as some of the ancients say, fifteen years 
after the ascension of our Saviour, or, as others 
affirm, yet seven years earlier, or, according to 
yet others, at a considerably later period than the 
latest of these two dates, that is, about the year 
60, or between 60 and 70 of our era, while Peter 



142 MATTHEW. 

and Paul were preaching at Rome. Although 
some critics have advanced the opinion that 
Luke's Gospel was the first which was written, 
the general voice of antiquity is against them, 
and a majority also, I believe, of the moderns. 
So that the Gospel of Matthew really stands, in 
all probability, where a place is given to it in our 
Bibles, — the first in order of the four evangelical 
histories. 

Another circumstance respecting this Gospel, 
which the earliest ecclesiastical authors record, 
and which, though it has been controverted, is 
most probably a fact, is, that we do not possess 
it in the language in which it was originally com- 
posed. It was written by Matthew, according 
to the best testimony, at Jerusalem, on purpose 
for the Jewish converts, and in that modern dia- 
lect or species of Hebrew which was the common 
language, at that time, of Palestine. The Gospel 
in that language has been lost, it is supposed, 
irretrievably. That which- we have is a transla- 
tion of it into Greek, made very soon after the 
original was composed. There is no reason to 
challenge its exact faithfulness to the original; 
and some have even supposed that Matthew him- 
self was the author of this Greek rendering of his 
own Hebrew Gospel. The predominant opinion 
is, however, that the name of the translator, and 
the Gospel which he translated, are alike unknown 



MATTHEW. 143 

and undiscoverable. Though we may be allowed 
to regret that we cannot look on the very words 
which this excellent apostle used in narrating, 
for our exceeding benefit, the life and actions of 
his Master, yet our faith ought not to be in the 
least disturbed by the loss, while there remains 
to us a translation of his history, so manifestly 
ancient, complete, and true. 

I am well aware that there are great names to 
be brought against the commonly received opin- 
ions of the priority of Matthew's Gospel, and its 
having been originally written in Hebrew. There 
are also great names in favor of those opinions. 
And I confess I am somewhat surprised that the 
name of Lardner stands in the former class. 
Irenaeus, on whose authority, as being the most 
ancient, he justly relies, expressly says that the 
Gospel was written in Hebrew ; and though he 
seems to assign the latest of the three dates to 
its composition, he evidently means to leave the 
impression that it was written before the other 
Gospels. I will now give the passage from Ire- 
nseus — who wrote about the year 178 — pre- 
cisely as it is given in Lardner' s own immortal 
work. 

" Matthew then among the Jews wrote a gospel 
in their own language, while Peter and Paul were 
preaching the gospel at Rome, and founding [or 
establishing] the church there. And after their 



144 MATTHEW. 

exit [that is, death, or departure] Mark also, the 
disciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to us, 
in writing, the things that had been preached by 
Peter. And Luke, the companion of Paul, put 
down in a book the gospel preached by him. 
Afterwards John the disciple of the Lord, who 
leaned upon his breast, likewise published a gos- 
pel, whilst he dwelt at Ephesus, in Asia." 

And the next authority cited by Lardner is 
that of Origen, who says, about the year 230, 
" that according to the tradition received by him, 
the first gospel was written by Matthew, once a 
publican, afterwards a disciple of Jesus Christ ; 
who delivered it to the Jewish believers, com- 
posed in the Hebrew language." To the same 
purpose is the testimony of Eusebius, the third 
cited authority. 

Although Dr. Lardner's arguments against the 
Hebrew original of Matthew's Gospel are learned 
and ingenious, they cannot convince me in oppo- 
sition to such authorities. And let it be observed, 
that the date assigned by Irenaeus to its compo- 
sition is not a fixed and certain date, because 
the period of the preaching of Peter and Paul at 
Rome is not a fixed or certain year. But the 
priority of the Gospel is a fixed and certain fact, 
according to that Father, and so is the language 
in which it was written. 

Matthew is said to have carried the religion 



MATTHEW. 145 

of Jesus into Partliia and Ethiopia, and to have 
suffered martyrdom at Naddaber, in the latter 
country, but by what death is uncertain. We 
are told also that his remains were brought to 
Bithynia, and from thence to Salernum, in the 
kingdom of Naples, where they were discovered 
in the year 1080, and where a church was built 
for them by Duke Robert, in the pontificate of 
Gregory "VII. We can readily believe that relics 
were thus found and honored, which were de 
clared, and by many supposed, to be the body of 
the apostle ; but that they really were so, we are 
at perfect liberty to question and to deny. 

Matthew's festival is on the 21st of September. 



JAMES THE LESS. 

Next to his own name, Matthew writes that 
of " James, the son of Alpheus " ; who is also 
called, in the Gospel of Mark, " James the Less," 
or the younger, to distinguish him from the other 
apostle of the same name, James the brother of 
John, who was older than he ; or it may be that 
he was of small stature, and therefore named 
" the less." 

His mother's name was Mary. She was one 
of the Marys who were present at the crucifixion 
of our Saviour; and appears to have been the 
sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. In the Gos- 
pel of Mark she is called " Mary, the mother of 
James the Less, and of Joses." In a parallel 
passage of John's Gospel, she is mentioned as 
follows : " There stood by the cross of Jesus, 
his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the 
ivife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." From 
these passages the inference is justly drawn, that 
James the Less was the first cousin of Jesus. 
He is expressly called the son of Alpheus and of 
Mary ; and as Mary, who was the wife of Alpheus, 



JAMES THE LESS. 147 

which is only the Greek pronunciation of the 
Hebrew name Cleophas, is also termed in the 
same passage the sister of our Lord's mother, he 
is consequently our Lord's cousin. 

He is the same person who is mentioned by 
Paul, when he says, in his Epistle to the Gala- 
tians, " But other of the apostles saw I none, 
save James, the Lord's brother." To account for 
this appellation, it must be observed that the Jews 
were accustomed to include all near relations 
under the general name of brethren. And we 
may also remark, that, though it appears strange 
that Mary should be the sister of Mary, it was 
not uncommon among the Jews, that two sisters 
of the same family should bear the same name. 
James is likewise enumerated among the Lord's 
brethren by the Jews, when they asked in aston- 
ishment, " Is not this the carpenter's son ? is 
not his mother called Mary ? and his brethren, 
James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas ? " Of 
these four sons, three were apostles of Jesus ; and 
the other one, Joses, or Joseph, was probably a 
disciple ; as was Cleophas too, or Alpheus, the 
father of this Christian family. 

The exact relationship to Jesus of James the 
Less, and others who are called his brethren, 
was a matter of controversy in very early times. 
Respectable names appear on each side ; and 
Cave says that a majority of the ancients were of 



148 JAMES THE LESS. 

opinion that these " brethren " were actually the 
sons of Joseph by a former wife. It has appeared 
to me that the other opinion is the most likely 
to be the true one, and I have therefore called 
James the cousin of Jesus. One of the strongest 
arguments for this view of the relationship is, 
that the father of James is called Alpheus, and 
not Joseph, and that Mary the wife of Cleophas 
is mentioned in the Gospel of John as a person 
entirely distinct from the mother of Jesus, and 
further appears to be the same who is called by 
Mark the mother of James the Less and of Joses. 
Now Alpheus and Cleophas being the same 
name, the chain of testimony is complete, — so 
complete, that I wonder any question should ever 
have been raised on the subject. It may be 
added, that Lardner inclines to the opinion that 
James was cousin to our Lord. 

No particulars are related of James in the 
Gospels ; but honorable mention is made of him 
in the Book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul. 
Perhaps his youth and his modesty, together with 
his near relationship to Jesus, operated upon him 
to be silent and inactive during the life of the 
Saviour, though afterwards his talents and worth 
made him conspicuous. He appears to have re- 
sided constantly at Jerusalem, and to have been 
president or bishop of the church there. All an- 
tiquity affirms this, and Scripture gives it good 



JAMES THE LESS. 149 

countenance. Thus we are told in the twelfth 
chapter of Acts, that when Peter had been mi- 
raculously delivered from the prison into which 
he had been thrown by Herod, who had just slain 
the other James, he went to the house of a believ 
ing family, and said to those who were there, 
u Go, show these things unto James, and the 
brethren." James is evidently spoken of here 
as having a precedence among the brethren. 
Again, in the fifteenth chapter of the same book, 
he appears to have been the presiding member of 
the Council of Jerusalem, of which I have before 
had occasion to speak, and which decided that 
the Gentiles were to be received, on their con- 
version, into the full privileges of the Christian 
Church, without being obliged to undergo the 
ceremony of circumcision. It has been observed, 
that, though Peter spoke first on this occasion, 
James spoke last, and gave his opinion or " sen- 
tence " with regard to the most proper course to 
be pursued, and that the letter or result of the 
council was chiefly modelled upon his words. 
From these circumstances it has been concluded 
that he was the moderator or president of this 
first Christian council, and that this rank was 
probably conceded to him on account of his being 
the presiding apostle or bishop of Jerusalem, in 
which place the council was convened. Peter, 
as it may be remembered, agreed with James 



150 JAMES THE LESS. 

entirely in this case ; but, though in some sense 
chief of the apostles, it is evident that when the 
Church came to be enlarged and settled, he did 
not possess any general supreme authority, but, 
as in the present council, was regarded, and re- 
garded himself, as in subordination to the local 
authorities. The speech of James is replete with 
good sense, dignity, and a spirit of charity and 
forbearance, and sufficiently indicates the wisdom 
of his brethren in making him bishop or overseer 
of the Christian Church at Jerusalem. 

In the twenty-first chapter of Acts there is also 
a particular mention of James, which corroborates 
the preceding proofs of his consequence in the 
Church. In an account there given of the journey 
of Paul and his company to Jerusalem, with the 
collections for the saints in Judaea, the writer says : 
" And when we were come to Jerusalem, the 
brethren received us gladly. And the day fol- 
lowing, Paul went in with us unto James ; and 
all the elders were present." James could hardly 
have been singled out by name in this passage, 
for any other reason than because he was the 
chief person at this convocation of the elders. 

To all this evidence of the standing of James 
and the high consideration in which he was held, 
the testimony of Paul himself is to be added. 
One passage has already been adduced from the 
first chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians. In 



JAMES THE LESS. 151 

the second chapter, Paul says: " And when James, 
Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, per- 
ceived the grace that was given unto me, they 
gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fel- 
lowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and 
they unto the circumcision." Here it is to be 
noted that James is not only called one of the 
pillars of the Church, but is placed at the head of 
the three ; even before Cephas, or Peter. At the 
same time we ought to observe that ecclesiastical 
rank was by no means, in those primitive times, 
that thing of name and pomp and prerogative that 
it has since been made in most of the churches 
of Christendom ; for if James had been the bishop 
of Jerusalem in the same sense in which the 
title is now applied, Paul would never have said 
of him and the others, that they " seemed to be 
pillars," — an expression which plainly signifies, 
that they appeared, as far as he could judge, to 
be the first men in the Church. In truth, a bishop 
iii those days was only a moderator among breth- 
ren and equals, appointed to the office by them, 
and appointed to it for his superior gifts and at- 
tainments. 

Once more, and in this same chapter, is James 
mentioned. Paul, in relating the vacillating con- 
duct of Peter, with regard to eating with the 
Gentiles, says, in the words which I have already 
quoted in Peter's life : " Before that certain came 



152 JAMES THE LESS. 

from James, he did eat with the Gentiles ; but 
when they were come, he withdrew and sepa- 
rated himself." Here again is James spoken of 
as a person of consideration and authority. 

Thus far do the Scriptures inform us of the 
life and character of James the Less. Ancient 
ecclesiastical writers have much to say of his 
virtues and wisdom, and of the respect which 
they procured for him, both among the faithful 
and the unbelieving. The Jews, we are told, 
were unbounded in their admiration of him ; in- 
somuch that, as Jerome affirms, they used to 
strive to touch the hem of his garment. On ac- 
count of his remarkable integrity, he obtained 
another surname beside that which is given to 
him in the Scriptures, and was called James the 
Just. Some go so. far as to say, that he was al- 
lowed to enter into the Holy of Holies of the Jew- 
ish temple ; but this must be a fiction. It is a 
fiction, however, which, together with other sim- 
ilar ones, shows that there must have been a 
foundation for them in the high character and 
reputation of this apostle. 

The circumstances of his death are differently 
stated. Josephus, the Jewish historian, is sup- 
posed to relate it in the following passage from 
the twentieth book of his Antiquities, which I give 
in the translation of L'Estrange. " The Ananus 
we are now speaking of [who had recently been 



JAMES THE LESS. 153 

raised to the high-priesthood by Agrippa] was 
naturally fierce and hardy ; by sect a Sadducee, 
the most censorious and uncharitable sort of peo- 
ple upon the face of the earth. This being his 
way and opinion, he took his opportunity, in the 
interval betwixt the death of Festus and the arri- 
val of his successor Albinus, who was as yet but 
upon the way, to call a council together, with the 
assistance of the judges, and to cite James, the 
brother of Jesus, which was called Christ, with 
some others, to appear before them, and answer 
to a charge of blasphemy, and breach of the law ; 
whereupon they were condemned, and delivered 
up to be stoned. " The account proceeds to say 
that all the sober and conscientious part of the 
city were so much offended with this high-handed 
way of acting, that they sent a representation of 
it, with a remonstrance, both to King Agrippa 
and to Albinus ; the consequence of which was, 
that Ananus was deposed by Agrippa from the 
pontificate. This passage would be decisive, 
were it not that several learned men question the 
genuineness of the words, " the brother of Jesus 
which was called Christ. " Lardner thinks that 
they are an interpolation, and inclines to the ac- 
count given by Eusebius, in the second book of 
his Ecclesiastical History ; who says, " When 
Paul had appealed to Caesar, and had been sent 
to Rome by Festus, the Jews, who had aimed at 

7* 



154 JAMES THE LESS. 

his death, being disappointed in that design, 
turned their rage against James, the Lord's broth- 
er, who had been appointed by the apostles bishop 
of Jerusalem " ; and then he goes on to state that 
James was killed in a popular tumult. If this 
narrative is the true one, it makes the death of 
the apostle a year or two earlier than it is dated 
by Josephus ; but at any rate we may safely fix 
it somewhere about the year 60, and eight or ten 
years before the destruction of Jerusalem. He 
was buried, according to Gregory, bishop of 
Tours, on Mount Olivet, in a tomb which he had 
built for himself. 

So great was the reputation of James for sanc- 
tity, that his death was supposed by the Jews 
themselves to have hastened the destruction of 
their city. Some of the Fathers tell us that this 
was asserted by Josephus ; but the passage is 
not now to be found in his works. Both the ac- 
counts of James's death agree that he was stoned. 
It is added in the relation of Hegesippus, as pre- 
served by Eusebius, that he was finally de- 
spatched by the blow of a fuller's club. 

The following excellent summary of the main 
facts in the life of James is from the close of 
Lardner's account of that apostle. 

"James, sometimes called the Less, the son of 
Alpheus, and called the Lord's brother, either as 
being the son of Joseph by a former wife, or a 



JAMES THE LESS. 155 

relation of his mother Mary, was one of Christ's 
apostles. We have no account of the time when 
he was called to the apostleship. Nor is there 
anything said of him particularly in the history 
of our Saviour which is in the Gospels. But 
from the Acts, and St. Paul's Epistles, we can 
perceive that after our Lord's ascension he was 
of note among the apostles. Soon after St. Ste- 
phen's death in the year 36, or thereabout, he 
seems to have been appointed president or su- 
perintendent in the church of Jerusalem, where, 
and in Judaea, he resided the remaining part of 
his life. Accordingly, he presided in the Council 
of Jerusalem, held there in the year 49 or 50. 
He was in great repute among the Jewish people, 
both believers and unbelievers, and was surnamed 
the Just. Notwithstanding which, he suffered 
martyrdom in a tumult at the temple ; and prob- 
ably in the former part of the year 62." 

There is one epistle, among the canonical 
books of the New Testament, which is very gen- 
erally ascribed to James the Less, the brother or 
cousin of Jesus, though some doubt has been en- 
tertained of its authenticity and apostolic author- 
ity, and no distinct reference to it is to be found 
in the writings of the earliest Fathers. In the 
time of Eusebius, however, it was universally 
received and read in the churches. It is a noble 
exhortation, full of good sense and spirit, digni- 



156 JAMES THE LESS. 

fied, independent, and explicit. Its value is of 
the highest description, both as it is an unreserved 
declaration of the intrinsic merit and importance 
of good works or virtue, and as it contains a most 
fearless, indignant, and forcible denunciation of 
the reigning vices and follies of the generation 
to whom the apostle wrote. A common opinion 
among the ancient writers of the Church is, that 
the first part of it was composed expressly to ex- 
plain those passages of Paul's epistles which seem 
to slight good works, and make everything of 
faith, or mere belief; and that the severe rebukes 
and warnings which are contained in the latter 
portion of it were the chief occasion of the writ- 
er's being stoned to death by the Jewish popu- 
lace ; as that event is supposed to have taken 
place a short time after the publication of the 
epistle. 

That the encomium of James on good works 
was intended to explain some of those things in 
Paul's writings which were hard to be under- 
stood is not improbable; but that it is in direct 
opposition to them, as some have thought, is not 
only improbable, but impossible. For it is im- 
possible to read Paul's description of charity, in 
which he declares that it is greater than both 
faith and hope, and still to believe that he would 
so directly contradict himself as to reverse this 
order, and exalt faith above charity ; or that he 



JAMES THE LESS. 157 

intended by what he calls works, and the works 
of the law, what we mean by good works and 
Christian morality or virtue. The world have 
been too long, and much too vehemently disput- 
ing about the relative superiority of faith and 
works, and arraying James against Paul, and 
Paul against himself. It was, perhaps, a strong 
bias toward one side of this controversy, or rather 
a bigoted and dogmatical attachment to it, quite 
as much as any doubts of the genuineness and 
antiquity of James's epistle, which induced Luther 
to call it, in contempt, " an epistle of straw." * 
Despite, however, of this coarse epithet of the 
Reformer, it has maintained its authority in the 
Christian Church, — an authority which, if intrin- 
sic excellence and internal evidence have any 
weight, it amply deserves. 

His day in the Calendar is May 1st, which is 
also dedicated to the Apostle Philip. 

* "Epistola straminea," a strawy epistle, is the phrase ap- 
plied by Luther to the epistle of James. The boldness, and 
perhaps even the rudeness, of the great Eeformer qualified 
him to carry through his enterprise as he did, under circum- 
stances and in an age which demanded not only decision, 
but a rough, uncompromising, unfeeling decision. Granting 
this to be the case, still he is not to be regarded as a pattern 
of Christian meekness, forbearance, or charity, — qualities which 
neither he, nor his contemporary Calvin, in any great degree 
possessed. Luther was more wild in his doctrine of faith than 
even Calvin ; and he yented his spleen against good works on 
the excellent epistle of James, in an expression of contempt 
which would not be tolerated at the present day. 



JUDE. 

The apostle who stands the tenth on Matthew's 
list, and is there called " Lebbeus whose surname 
was Thaddeus," is called in Mark's catalogue 
" Thaddeus," and in Luke's, " Judas the brother 
of James." We cannot fail to remark how care- 
fully he is always distinguished from the other 
Judas. Matthew and Mark avoid naming him 
by the name which he held in common with the 
traitor ; and Luke takes care to distinguish him 
by adding to that ill-omened appellation that he 
was the brother of James. 

Jude, Judas, and Judah are one and the same 
name. Jude is merely an English abbreviation 
of Judas, and Judas is only a Greek pronuncia- 
tion of the old Hebrew name of Judah. It means 
the praise of the Lord. Thaddeus is derived 
from the same root, and has a similar significa- 
tion. Lebbeus appears to mean a man of heart , 
or courage, being derived from a word signifying 
the heart. These two last names were probably 
adopted to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. 

All that is said of him in the sacred histories 



JUDE. 159 

is, that at the last supper he asked Jesus why he 
was to manifest himself to his disciples, and not 
to the world. He was moved to put this question 
by the views which, in common with the other 
disciples, he entertained of the coming of the 
Messiah ; who, as he thought, was to declare 
himself at last, with great pomp and external 
power. It was a mystery to him, therefore, how 
this victorious display was to be made to the 
small number of his disciples alone, and not to 
the whole admiring world. The answer of Jesus 
was not then, in all probability, understood. 
The meaning and substance of it was, that he 
and his Father would manifest themselves to 
those alone, and dwell in those alone, who loved 
him with that holy love, the fruits of which were 
righteousness and peace. This strong and beau- 
tiful declaration of the spirituality of the Mes- 
siah's kingdom is to be added to those which I. 
have already noticed. The circumstance is re- 
lated by John in the fourteenth chapter of his 
Gospel, who designates the apostle as "Judas, 
not Iscariot." No light is anywhere thrown 
upon his character ; and all that we know of his 
condition is, that he was the brother of James 
the Less, and consequently a cousin of our 
Lord. 

Other accounts of this apostle are so various 
and contradictory, that it would be wasting time 



160 JUDE. 

to quote any of them. It is not known with cer- 
tainty where he preached, or where he died, or 
whether he died a natural death, or suffered 
martyrdom. Most of the Latin writers say, that 
he travelled into Persia, where his labors were 
very successful ; but where, having irritated the 
Magi by reproving them for their superstitious 
practices, he was put to a violent death. Some 
of the Greeks affirm that he died quietly at Be- 
rytus ; and the Armenians contend that in their 
country he was martyred.* 

There is a passage from the ancient writer 
Hegesippus, as quoted by Eusebius, from which 
it appears that Jude was perhaps an husbandman 
before he was an apostle, and that he had de- 
scendants. The passage is thus given by Lard- 
ner: — 

"When Domitian made inquiries after the 
posterity of David, some grandsons of Jude, 

* It is in vain to endeavor to learn anything of this apostle 
from the writings of the Fathers, who, as is very evident from 
their contradictory stories, knew nothing abont him. They gen- 
erally preferred, however, to record the most groundless legend, 
rather than to confess their ignorance. " The men themselves," 
says Dr. Jortin, speaking of the Fathers, in his Remarks on Ec- 
clesiastical History, " usually deserve much respect, and their 
writings are highly useful on several accounts ; but it is better 
to defer too little than too much to their decisions, and to the au- 
thority of antiquity, that handmaid to Scripture, as she is called. 
She is like Briareus, and has a hundred hands, and these hands 
often clash, and beat one another." 



JUDE. 161 

called the Lord's brother, were brought before 
him. Being asked concerning their possessions 
and substance, they assured him that they had 
only so many acres of land, out of the improve- 
ment of which they both paid him tribute, and 
maintained themselves with their own hard labor. 
The truth of what they said was confirmed by 
the callousness of their hands. Being asked 
concerning Christ, and his kingdom, of what 
kind it was, and when it would appear, they 
answered, that it was not worldly and earthly, 
but heavenly and angelical ; that it would be 
manifested at the end of the world, when, coming 
in great glory, he would judge the living and the 
dead, and render to every man according to his 
works. The men being mean, and their princi- 
ples harmless, they were dismissed." 

If the above passage be taken in connection 
with another from the old but doubtful book of 
the Apostolical Constitutions, in which the apos- 
tles are made to say, " Some of us are fishermen, 
others tent-makers, others husbandmen," the 
probability that Jude was a tiller of the soil is 
strengthened. At any rate, if the account of 
Hegesippus is to be relied on, he was married, 
and had descendants. 

One epistle has been so generally ascribed to 
Judas, or Jude, that it has been admitted into 
the canon of the New Testament. There is 



162 JUDE. 

hardly another book, however, in that canon, 
which has been so much disputed. And yet 
there is no solid reason for rejecting the early 
tradition which gives it to this apostle. It was 
known in the first century, and there is no inter- 
nal evidence against its apostolic origin. It was 
expressly quoted by Clement of Alexandria, who 
flourished about the year 194, and, after him, by 
succeeding Fathers. Lardner supposes it to have 
been written at some time between the years 64 
and Q6, that is, a few years before the destruction 
of Jerusalem. 

October 28th is sacred, in the Western Calen- 
dar, to the memory of the Apostle Jude. 



SIMON ZELOTES. 

The next apostle in order is another Simon, 
who, in the catalogues of Matthew and Mark, is 
surnamed " the Oanaanite," and in that of Luke's 
Gospel, and the Book of Acts, " Zelotes." Some 
have thought that the surname, Oanaanite, de- 
noted the birthplace of the apostle ; but others, 
with more probability, suppose that Oanaanite is 
merely a Hebrew word, having the same signifi- 
cation with Zelotes, the Greek word used by 
Luke, and which means a zealot, or one who is 
extremely zealous. Simon may have received 
this appellation on account of his having once 
belonged to a sect or faction among the Jews 
who were called Zealots, or only on account of 
the warmth of his disposition, or the ardor with 
which he espoused and maintained the cause of 
Jesus.* 

*• " This word," says Cave, " has no relation to his country, or 
the place from whence he borrowed his original, as plainly de- 
scending from a Hebrew word which signifies zeal, and denotes a 
hot and sprightly temper. Therefore, what some of the Evange- 
lists call Canaanite, others, rendering the Hebrew by the Greek 
word, style Simon Zelotes, or the Zelot." 



164 SIMON ZELOTES. 

It is probable, though not certain, that he is 
the same Simon who is mentioned as one of the 
brethren or cousins of our Lord. Of the history 
of his life nothing whatever is known ; although 
the later writers and martyrologists of the Church 
pretend, as usual, to be intimately acquainted 
with it, and give us our choice of a sufficient 
number of contradictory legends. By some of 
them he is said to have labored in Egypt and 
Persia, and to have been martyred in the last- 
named country. By others, he is made to pene- 
trate as far as Britain, and there to be crucified. 
" Nor could the coldness of the climate benumb 
his zeal," exclaims the honest Cave, "or hinder 
him from shipping himself and the Christian 
doctrine over to the western islands, yea, even 
to Britain itself. Here he preached, and wrought 
many miracles, and, after infinite troubles and 
difficulties which he underwent, suffered martyr- 
dom for the faith of Christ, as is not only af- 
firmed by Nicephorus and Dorotheus, but ex- 
pressly owned in the Greek Menologies, where we 
are told that he went at last into Britain, and, 
having enlightened the minds of many with the 
doctrine of the Gospel, was crucified by the infi- 
dels, and buried there." 

The two apostles, Simon and Jude, are com- 
memorated on the same day, October 28th. 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

The last, always the last, on the lists of the 
apostles, is Judas Iscariot. He is always brand- 
ed, too, by those fearful and thrilling words, 
" who also betrayed him." And it is sad that 
we must close the roll which we have been ex- 
amining of this glorious apostolic company with 
the name of a traitor. 

His surname of Iscariot probably designates 
his birthplace ; as it signifies " the man of Carioth 
or Kerioth," which was a town in the tribe of 
Judah. But this is hardly more than conjecture. 
There is a solemn obscurity hanging over the 
life of thjs man, shrouding everything in silent 
and immovable shadow, except one deed of gi- 
gantic enormity, which raises its high and desert 
head, and frowns in gloomy solitude over the 
surrounding waste of darkness and clouds. He 
is called the son of Simon. Who is Simon ? 
Search the Scriptures for him. The search will 
be vain. He is only known, as has been forcibly 
said, — only known by the misfortune of having 
such a son. 



166 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

The early dispositions of Judas must have been 
bad, or he would not have proved himself the 
wretch that he did, so soon after joining himself 
to such a Master ; and a circumstance recorded 
in the Gospel of John plainly intimates to us 
what the chief vice of his character was. We 
are informed that on a visit which Jesus made 
to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom a little 
while before he had raised from the dead, a sup- 
per was made for him there : that Lazarus, with 
not one trace of death on his countenance, though 
but just now brought up from the grave, sat at 
table ; and that Martha, with her usual assiduity, 
served. " Then took Mary a pound of ointment 
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet 
of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair ; and 
the house was filled with the odor of the oint- 
ment." This offering, though it may not have 
been useful, was certainly grateful and generous, 
and was beside in conformity with the custom 
of the country, and deserved, therefore, an ap- 
proving comment from the friends and followers 
of Jesus. But what was the sequel ? " Then 
saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's 
son, who was to betray him, Why was not this 
ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given 
to the poor ? " From an honest and really char- 
itable man this remark would have been but 
a cold one, at such a season ; but Judas was 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 167 

neither ; and he said this, proceeds the histo- 
rian, " not that he cared for the poor, but be- 
cause he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare 
off what was put therein." * Thus it appears 
that the root of all this traitor's wickedness was 
avarice, and that it had already borne the deadly 
fruits of fraud and theft. He had the bag. He 
had been the treasurer of the fraternity ; and so 
strong was his odious passion, and so weak was 
his principle, that he was unable to resist the 
temptation, which the trust afforded him, of pur- 
loining whatever he could from the common 
stock, which of necessity must have been a scanty 
one ; and on this occasion he was grievously dis- 
appointed that he could not have the handling of 
the large sum of three hundred Roman denarii, 
under the pretence of distributing it to the poor. 
It is to be presumed that his peculiarities were 
not known to the apostles at that time, but that 
they came to light afterwards. If they had then 
been aware of his conduct, they would doubtless 
have spurned and avoided him. 

Their Master, however, was acquainted both 
with what he did and with what he was ; for it 
was on an occasion previous to this, that, in re- 
minding the disciples of his own strong claims 

* In our English Bible it is, " and bare what was put therein," 
— a translation which does not seem to give the true meaning of 
the passage, though the Greek verb admits of both senses. 



168 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

on their attachment, he said, " Have not I chosen 
you twelve ? and one of you is a devil ! " Here, 
too, as we are informed, " he spake of Judas 
Iscariot, the son of Simon." And let it be ob- 
served that neither the apostleship of Judas, nor 
his being the treasurer of the apostles, were 
causes of his avarice and treachery, and that 
therefore the knowledge which his Master pos- 
sessed of his unsoundness is no excuse for it. 
If he had been a man of common goodness only, 
the trust which was reposed in him would have 
prompted him to a worthy exercise of it. Con- 
sequently it did not occasion, it only was the 
means of drawing forth and exposing, his base- 
ness. Why our Saviour, acquainted as he was 
with the character of Judas, permitted him to 
hold the office of purse-bearer, or why he ever 
called him to be an apostle, are questions of a 
different import. Before we attempt to assign 
any reason or motive for the course of Jesus in 
this respect, let us attend for a moment to its 
consequences, and its bearing on the credibility 
of his Gospel. 

I have already stated, in my introductory re- 
marks, that, among the reasons which existed in 
the mind of our Lord for calling to himself a 
company of apostles, one probably was, that his 
conduct and instructions, being scrutinized by a 
number of individuals, and continually spread 



JUDAS ISCAEIOT. 169 

open to their observation, might be sufficiently 
attested and vindicated, at first to them, and 
afterwards to the world. This test was made 
more perfect by the introduction of one among 
his attendants whose heart was corrupt, and who 
would probably turn to as bad account as possible 
the confidence reposed in him. Thus we see 
that the inquisition to which the author of our 
religion was exposed w T as a complete one. The 
honest disciples would have published anything 
which they might have seen inconsistent with 
rectitude ; and the traitor, the unprincipled dis- 
ciple, would have magnified any fault or miscon- 
duct in his Master, if he could have found any 
there, as an excuse for his treachery. We ought 
not to be too hasty in ascribing motives to our 
Saviour in so grave a concern as this ; but with 
the facts before us we cannot but feel satisfied 
that his character rests on a firmer basis, from 
having been thus laid open to the search of a 
wicked spy, and that his religion derives advan- 
tage from the scrutiny. And it is to be repeated, 
that the apostolic call did not make Judas a thief 
and a traitor ; it found him one already ; and if 
ever any man had the opportunity of reformation 
offered him, it certainly was he, who daily heard 
the instructions of Heaven, and beheld the exam- 
ple of perfection. We may conclude, therefore, 
that it was for the satisfaction of all future ages, 



170 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

for our conviction of the faultlessness of Jesus 
Christ, that Judas was made an apostle. 

Commentators and harmonists disagree upon 
the question, whether the supper at Bethany was 
the same as that mentioned by Matthew as hav- 
ing been given in the house of Simon the leper. 
There are some circumstances common to both, 
and some peculiar to each. Macknight is confi- 
dent that they were two distinct occurrences. A 
few of these arguments I will here repeat, which 
may lead the reader to further investigations. 

"Although this supper (John xii. 2) is sup- 
posed by many to have been the same with that 
mentioned in Matt. xxvi. 6, upon examination 
they will appear to have been different. This 
happened in the house of Lazarus ; that, in the 
house of Simon the leper. At this, Mary, the 
sister of Lazarus, anointed our Lord's feet, and 
wiped them with her hair ; at that, a woman, not 
named, poured the ointment on his head. Here 
Judas only found fault with the action ; there he 
was seconded by some of the rest. It seems all 
the disciples but Judas had let his first anointing 
pass without censure. But when they saw so 
expensive a compliment repeated, and that within 
a few days the one of the other, they joined with 
him in blaming the woman, and might think 
themselves warranted to do so, as they knew that 
their Master was not delighted with luxuries of 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 171 

any kind." Again he says : " The anointing 
after which Judas bargained with the priests 
happened only two days before the Passover, and 
consequently was different from that mentioned 
by John, which was six days before that solem- 
nity." 

" Thus it evidently appears," he proceeds, 
" that our Lord was anointed with spikenard three 
different times during the course of his ministry ; 
once in the house of Simon the Pharisee, once 
in the house of Lazarus, and once in the house 
of Simon the leper. That this honor should 
have been done him so often needs not be thought 
strange ; for in those countries it was common 
at entertainments to pour fragrant oils on the 
heads of such guests as they designed to distin- 
guish with marks of extraordinary respect. The 
custom is alluded to, Psal. xlv. 7, ' God hath 
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy 
fellows.' Where this piece of civility was showed, 
it was an expression of the highest complacency, 
and produced great gladness in the person who 
was the object of it." 

The answer of our Lord to the covetous remark 
of his disciple is narrated as follows : " Then 
said Jesus, Let her alone ; against the day of 
my burial hath she kept this. For the poor 
always ye have with you ; but me ye have not 
always." That is, " Suffer this woman to per- 






172 JUDAS ISCAEIOT. 

form her pious work, and molest her not. She 
is anointing me for my burial ; for I know that 
my hour is at hand, and that the grave is ready 
for me. Let her alone ; it is the last testimony 
of her gratitude ; it is the last mark of affection 
and reverence which I shall receive on earth ; 
why then should it be called too costly ? The 
claims of the poor are just and strong ; I, surely, 
have never taught you to slight them ; but the 
poor remain with you, and you will have abun- 
dant opportunity to relieve them ; I am about to 
depart from you, and go to my Father." 

This rebuke was a mild and touching one; 
but it affected not the stubborn heart of Judas ; 
it even incited him, perhaps, to execute imme- 
diately his before-conceived purpose of betraying 
his Master into the hands of his enemies ; for, 
very soon after it had been uttered, he went unto 
the chief priests, and bargained with them to 
deliver up Jesus into their power for thirty pieces 
of silver, — a sum not more than about a third of 
what the ointment had cost ; and from that time 
he sought opportunity to betray him. 

The value of the ointment was three hundred 
pence ; the wages of treachery were thirty pieces 
of silver. The pence are supposed to be the Ro- 
man denarii, and a denarius is estimated at seven 
pence half-penny, English money ; at which rate 
the whole cost of the ointment would be over 



JUDAS ISCAEIOT. 173 

nine pounds sterling. The pieces of silver were 
probably the Jewish shekels, each of which was 
of a weight equivalent to about two shillings and 
three pence ; amounting in all to between three 
and four pounds. A different reckoning, how- 
ever, has been adopted by some, as appears from 
the following passage from Jeremy Taylor's Life 
of Christ, which I quote at length, as containing 
other opinions on this subject. It will be per- 
ceived that the bishop takes it for granted that 
Mary Magdalen was the woman who anointed 
our Lord. 

" It is not intimated, in this history of the life 
of Jesus, that Judas had any malice against the 
person of Christ; for when afterward he saw the 
matter was to end in the death of his Lord, he 
repented; but a base and unworthy spirit of 
covetousness possessed him ; and the relics of 
indignation for missing the price of the ointment 
which the holy Magdalen had poured upon his 
feet burnt in his bowels with a secret, dark, 
melancholic fire, and made an eruption into an 
act which all the ages of the world could never 
parallel. They appointed him for hire thirty 
pieces ; and some say that every piece did in 
value equal ten ordinary current deniers ; and so 
Judas was satisfied by receiving the worth of the 
three hundred pence at which he valued the 
nard pistic. But hereafter let no Christian be 



174 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

ashamed to be despised and undervalued ; for he 
will hardly meet so great a reproach as to have 
so disproportioned a price set upon his life as was 
upon the holy Jesus. St. Mary Magdalen thought 
it not good enough to aneal his sacred feet ; Ju- 
das thought it a sufficient price for his head ; for 
covetousness aims at base and low purchases, 
whilst holy love is great and comprehensive as 
the bosom of Heaven, and aims at nothing that 
is less than infinite." 

It has been a subject of surprise with many 
commentators, that so small a bribe should have 
tempted Judas to commit so great a crime ; and 
it does seem as if some other motive must have 
co-operated with the love of money, in bringing 
his mind to its dreadful determination. Among 
the solutions which have been proposed of this 
apparent enigma is the one which supposes that 
Judas was impatient of the delay of his Master 
to assume the state and magnificence of his Mes- 
siahship, and that his intention was to compel 
him to do so, by bringing him into such imminent 
peril, that he would be obliged to call his follow- 
ers round him, work some signal miracle to free 
himself, and then mount the throne of David and 
of Israel. In this event, he of course calculated 
that he should come in for his share of those 
offices and rewards which he had been long 
pining for, and pining for in vain. Here, also, 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 175 

avarice is the governing motive ; only on a much 
larger scale than in the action as it is simply 
narrated in the Scriptures. 

There is something to say in favor of this ex- 
planation, and something too may be said against 
it. It is safest and easiest to take the bare Gospel 
statement, which merely informs us, that, for the 
consideration of thirty shekels of silver, Judas 
covenanted to betray his Master. No motive is 
expressly assigned for the act ; but as he is rep- 
resented as selfish and avaricious, we must pre- 
sume that selfishness and avarice moved him to 
this last and most awful crime. With regard 
to the price of his treachery, a survey of human 
nature and human passions will not authorize us 
to say that any sum is too small to tempt habitual 
and absorbing avarice to any act or degree of 
wickedness. Earthly, sensual, and contemptible, 
there is no knowing how low this passion will 
creep, nor how high it will strike ; how meanly 
it may dig for its dirty food, nor how daringly it 
may direct its poison. 

Having concluded his bargain with the priests, 
and, as he thought, secretly, Judas resumed his 
place among the twelve, and the next that we 
hear of him is at the last supper.* As they were 

* That is, the supper of the Passover. It has heen disputed, 
whether Judas was or was not present when Jesus instituted his 
own supper, at the time of this feast ; and it is a difficult point to 



176 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

eating, Jesus said, " Yerily I say unto you, that 
one of you shall betray me." At this intimation, 
the disciples, innocent as they all but one felt 
themselves to be, were exceedingly distressed, 
and they began each one to say unto him, " Lord, 
is it I ? " Jesus, who had just before discovered 
the traitor, by a sign, to Simon Peter and John, 
answered, and said, " He that dippeth his hand 
with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. 
The Son of Man goeth, as it is written of him ; 
but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man 
is betrayed ! it had been good for that man if he 
had not been born." Judas, who, in all proba- 
bility, saw that his Master's hand and his own 
were together in the dish, and that he was con- 
sequently accused of the treason, but still, per- 
haps, relying on the secrecy with which he had 
made his bargain, thought that he now was 
obliged to say something ; and pretending the 
same innocence as the rest, he asked the same 
question, " Lord, is it I ? " And Jesus, using no 
more signs, but directly accusing the miserable 
culprit, answered, " Thou hast said." He then 
added, "That which thou doest, do quickly." 
Judas, finding that no disguise or equivocation 
would now serve him, went immediately out. 

determine. " However it was/' observes the author from whom 
I quoted last, " Christ, who was Lord of the sacraments, might 
dispense it as he pleased," 



JUDAS ISCAEIOT. 177 

" And it was night," adds the historian. Night, 
indeed ! How dark, how sad, how portentous ! 
There never was another such since the world 
first woke from chaos. We seem to see it fall 
and settle like an outstretched pall, and embrace 
the whole of that devoted region with its mourn- 
ing folds. Under its covering the wretched 
apostate — apostle no longer — stole forth to exe- 
cute his purpose. What a night there must have 
been in his bosom and in his mind ! And what a 
night, of doubt and fear and mournfulness, did he 
leave in the hearts of the eleven, who now lis- 
tened sadly to their Master, as he pursued his 
melting, though calm, sustained, and heavenly 
discourse, and gave them his farewell exhorta- 
tions and his farewell blessing ! 

It was yet night when the small company, 
now made smaller by desertion, having finished 
their supper and sung a hymn together, went 
out, as was the frequent custom of Jesus, to the 
Mount of Olives. Here he suffered his dreadful 
agony ; and here Judas soon appeared, with an 
armed band, which he had received from the 
priests and Pharisees ; for he knew that he should 
probably find his Master in this place of his usual 
resort. In order that his attendants might be 
sure of their victim, in this season of confusion 
and darkness, the traitor gave them a sign, telling 
them that whomsoever he should kiss, the same 



178 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

was he. Then going up to Jesus, as if he had 
been a friend, and intended to offer the common 
salutation of friendship and intimacy, he said, 
"Hail, Master!" and kissed him. Reproach- 
fully Jesus said unto him, " Judas, betrayest 
thou the Son of Man with a kiss ? " " Is it with 
a hypocritical kiss of affection and peace that 
you perform this deed of atrocious ingratitude ? " 
Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and cap- 
tains of the temple, and the elders, who were 
come to him, "Be ye come out, as against a 
thief, with swords and staves ! When I was daily 
with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no 
hands against me ; but this is your hour, and the 
power of darkness." Then they took him, and 
brought him to the high-priest's house. 

And now that Judas has accomplished his de- 
sign, is he gratified ? At first perhaps he was. 
But it was a momentary satisfaction. Reflection 
succeeded passion, and grief and remorse fol- 
lowed hard upon the footsteps of reflection. He 
could think now ; and he could feel. He could 
think how good his Master had always been to 
him ; how perfectly free from guilt or stain, and 
yet how condescending and pitiful to human 
error. He felt the baseness of his own conduct ; 
he was appalled at the sight of his own enormous 
ingratitude ; he began to hate himself, and to 
fear the light of morning, and to dread the as- 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 179 

pect of that mild face, which, however mildly it 
might regard him, could speak nothing to his 
heart but judgment and agony. Morning came. 
The relentless and exulting enemies of Jesus 
met to adopt measures for securing their prey. 
As the fate of his Master approached nearer to 
its bloody catastrophe, the anguish of Judas be- 
came more intense, and his crime showed itself 
in all its horrors. Perhaps he did not apprehend 
that the priests would have pushed their malignity 
to the extreme of death. At any rate, his own 
malice and cupidity were wholly terrified away, 
and he resolved to make one wild effort to save 
the victim. He rushed to the conclave, with the 
now hateful silver grasped convulsively in his 
hand, and, reaching it out to his employers, he 
exclaimed, " I have sinned, in that I have be- 
trayed innocent blood." Deluded man ! Innocent 
or guilty, it was the same to them, so long as they 
could shed it. " And they said, What is that to 
us ? See thou to that ! " Stung to the quick by 
this cold and insulting reply, and feeling himself 
cast away like a tool which has been broken in 
the using, and having now no refuge from the 
fiends that were pursuing him, existence became 
a burden too heavy for him to bear ; and he 
threw the pieces of silver on the pavement of the 
temple, " and departed, and went and hanged 
himself." 



180 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

I know not how others may feel on perusing 
the history of this wretched man, but for my own 
part, I confess that my indignation is plentifully 
mingled with pity. How dark was the close 
of his short career ! How terrible was the pun- 
ishment of his guilt, — death by his own hands ! 
The price of blood lies scattered at the feet of 
the priests ; the betrayer has come to his end, 
even before the betrayed ; his apostleship is end- 
ed ; no softened multitude will listen to the tidings 
of salvation from his lips ; no converts to a pure 
and purifying faith will bow to receive the waters 
of baptism from his hands ; no countries will 
contend for the honor of his grave ; no churches 
will call themselves by his name ; no careful dis- 
ciples compose his limbs ; no enthusiastic devo- 
tees gather up his bones ; his dust is scattered 
to the winds ; his name is only preserved by its 
eternal ignominy. He was a martyr, — the first 
martyr, — but it was to avarice. He has had his 
followers too ; but they have been only those, 
who, as wicked and as wretched as himself, 
have, from that day to this, and in the countless 
forms of selfishness, sold, for a few pieces of sil- 
ver, their consciences, their Saviour, and their 
souls.* 

* In the life of Thomas Firmin, that wealthy and eminently 
liberal and pious citizen and merchant of London in the seven- 
teenth century, a curious legend is related from memory, respect- 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 181 

By an observable coincidence, it so happened 
that the money which Judas had received and 

ing the punishment of Judas in another state, which shows how 
the feelings of men relent, even towards the greatest transgressors. 
The legend is cited by the author, to illustrate the value of char- 
itable deeds. As, notwithstanding its wildness, it is conceived 
and told in a truly poetical manner, and has, if I may judge, a 
favorable influence on the affections, I shall offer no apology for 
repeating it. 

" I have read somewhere (but so long since, that I forget the 
author's name, and the subject of his book) that the punishment 
of Judas, who betrayed our Saviour, is, that he stands on the 
surface of a swelling, dreadful sea, Avith his feet somewhat below 
the water, as if he were about to sink. The writer saith, besides 
his continual horror and fear of going to the bottom, a most ter- 
rible tempest of hail and wind always beats on the traitor's naked 
body and head ; he suffers as much by cold, and the smart of the 
impetuous hail, as it is possible to imagine he could suffer by the 
fire of purgatory, or of hell. But, saith my author further, in 
this so great distress Judas has one great comfort and relief; for, 
whereas the tempest would be insupportable if it beat always 
upon him from all sides, at a little distance from him and some- 
what above him there is stretched out a sheet of strong, coarse 
linen cloth ; which sheet intercepts a great part of the tempest. 
Judas regales himself by turning sometimes one side, sometimes 
another side, of his head and body to the shelter of this sheet. In 
short, the sheet is such a protection to him, that it defends him 
from the one half of his punishment. But by what meritorious 
action or actions did Judas deserve so great a favor % Our au- 
thor answers, he gave just the same quantity of linen cloth to a 
certain poor family for shirting. It had been impossible that this 
gentleman should hit on such a conceit as this, but from our nat- 
ural opinion of the value and merit of charity ; it seems to us a 
virtue so excellent, that it may exclude even Judas from some 
part of his punishment. I can hardly afford to ask the reader's 
pardon for this tale ; I incline to think, that divers others may be 



182 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

returned became desecrated by his touch. There 
was a Jewish law which forbade that the price 
of blood should be put into the treasury. The 
priests, therefore, though they gathered up the 
pieces which the traitor had thrown down before 
them, were unable to appropriate them to the 
uses of the temple, and, after consulting together, 
agreed to purchase with them a field in the vicin- 
ity of Jerusalem, called the Potter's Field, to 
bury strangers in. The piece of ground thus 
purchased acquired the significant and fearful 
name of The Field of Blood. 

When the tragedy of the crucifixion was over, 
and the eleven, comforted and reassured by the 
appearance of their risen Lord, had assembled 
together in Jerusalem, with the other disciples, 
to the number of about an hundred and twenty, 
Peter proposed to the company that a disciple 
should be chosen by lot to take " the ministry and 
apostleship, from which Judas, by transgression, 
fell." In the address which he made on this 
occasion, he gives an account of the death of 
Judas, which differs somewhat from the rela- 
tion of Matthew. " Now this man," he says, 
" purchased a field with the reward of iniquity ; 
and, falling headlong, he burst asunder in the 

as well pleased with the wit of it, and the moral implied in it, as 
I have been, who remember it above forty years' reading, without 
remembering either the author or argument of the book." 



JUDAS ISCAEIOT. 183 

midst, and all bis bowels gusbed out." Several 
explanations have been given to reconcile this 
discrepancy, either of which is sufficiently proba- 
ble to answer the purpose. The most common 
one is, that Judas hung himself, as Matthew 
relates, and afterwards, by some accident, fell 
from the place where he was suspended, and was 
mangled in the shocking manner described by 
Peter. 

According to the apostle's recommendation, 
his brethren proceeded to fill the traitor's for- 
feited place ; and the lot fell upon Matthias, who 
had long been a disciple of Jesus, and is conjec- 
tured to have been one of the seventy. Thus 
was the miserable Judas, the apostate, the suicide, 
rejected from the apostolic company, even after 
his death, and his name and his memory blotted 
out, as entirely as was possible, from the records 
of the faithful. With the passages of the Scripture 
which were applied on this occasion by Peter, 
we will conclude his mournful biography. " For 
it is written in the Book of Psalms, Let his habi- 
tation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein ; 
and, His bishopric let another take." 



MATTHIAS. 

For all the holy and spiritual purposes of 
apostleship, and for all the purposes of honorable 
remembrance in the Christian Church, the place 
of Judas Iscariot is vacated, as we have seen, 
and must be supplied by another, in order that 
the apostolic number may be complete. The 
name of Matthias must be joined to the foregoing 
list, though his name is not once mentioned in 
the Gospels. We shall then have thirteen names, 
but only twelve apostles still ; twelve authorized 
founders of the Christian Church ; twelve com- 
missioned teachers of Christianity to the world ; 
twelve judges of the twelve tribes of Israel. 

The early determination of the eleven apostles 
to fill the spiritual throne from which Judas had 
fallen is proof of one or two interesting points. 
It proves, that, having recovered from their tem- 
porary panic, they were fully resolved to set about 
the work of their Master, and had no other idea 
but that of proclaiming his name, and planting 
his religion, according to his behest, and with 
the holy certainty of Divine assistance and pro- 



MATTHIAS. 185 

tection, and of final success. It proves that 
their zeal and confidence were not confined within 
the limits of their own number, but were shared 
by many others, who stood ready to fill the vacant 
post of honor and danger, and to join in the cares 
and perils of the new and marvellous enterprise. 
It proves, moreover, the regard of the apostles 
for the integrity of the original number of their 
company ; the number which the appointment of 
their Master had established and sanctified ; the 
patriarchal number of twelve. Though two indi- 
viduals were judged worthy of the forfeited sta- 
tion, only one could be received to it. 

It was necessary that the candidates for the 
apostleship should be personally acquainted with 
the main events of the life of Jesus, in order 
that they might bear direct witness thereto. 
" Wherefore of these men," said Peter, in the 
assembly of one hundred and twenty disciples, 
" who have companied with us all the time that 
the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, be- 
ginning from the baptism of John, unto that same 
day that he was taken up from us, must one be 
ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrec- 
tion." From this whole number, including very 
likely the seventy who are mentioned in the Gos- 
pels, two were selected as candidates, — "Joseph 
called Barnabas, whose surname was Justus, and 
Matthias " ; and after prayer to God for the 



186 MATTHIAS. 

disposal of the lots, they were cast, " and the lot 
fell upon Matthias ; and he was numbered with 
the eleven apostles." 

All that we know of the apostle who thus 
closed up and made whole the sacred ring which 
had been so violently broken is related in the 
above account. We may say of Matthias, that 
he was one of those who had been interested 
from the beginning in the person and claims of 
Jesus, and had travelled from place to place with 
him and with his first twelve apostles, hearing 
his instructions, beholding his miracles, witness- 
ing his holy life during his ministry on earth, and 
convinced by ocular demonstration of his resur- 
rection from the dead. We may also be permit- 
ted to infer, from the selection which was made 
of him, that he was distinguished among the com- 
panions of the apostles and followers of Jesus for 
his mental and moral qualities, for his wisdom 
and his virtue. 

Ecclesiastical history furnishes us with but 
poor and uncertain minutes of the apostolical 
labors of Matthias. An author of no great 
credit or antiquity asserts, " that he preached 
the Gospel in Macedonia ; where the Gentiles, 
to make an experiment of his faith and integ- 
rity, gave him a poisonous and intoxicating po- 
tion, which he cheerfully drank off, in the name 
of Christ, without the least prejudice to him- 



MATTHIAS. 187 

self; and, that when the same potion had de- 
prived about two hundred and fifty of their 
sight, he, laying his hands upon them, restored 
them to their sight, — with a great deal more 
of the same stamp," says Cave, " which I have 
neither faith enough to believe, nor leisure 
enough to relate." Cave goes on to observe, 
that the more probable account of the apostle 
is, that from Judaea, where he first labored, he 
travelled eastward and preached in Cappadocia, 
where he at last received the crown of martyrdom 
on the cross. 

Even the probability of this latter account is, 
however, but slight. Let it suffice, that he was 
a follower of our Lord from the first ; that he 
was a companion of the apostles before he was 
chosen to be one of them ; that he was considered 
worthy to be joined to their band ; and that he 
must have labored for Christ and the Church in a 
manner conformable to the trust which was re- 
posed in him, and the station which he was divine- 
ly allotted to fill. 

The Greeks commemorate Matthias on the 9th 
of August, but the Western Churches on the 24th 
of February. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

The lives and characters of the twelve apostles 
of Christ have now been separately considered ; 
but there are some general reflections upon them, 
regarded collectively, which naturally suggested 
themselves during the course that we have been 
through, and which may not prove uninteresting 
or uninstructive to those who have accompanied 
me in the way. 

We find, with respect to the circumstances of 
their external condition, — their country, their 
fortunes, their education, — that they were such 
as most readily presented themselves to the search 
of Jesus, and yet not such, by any means, as we 
should suppose would have been effective in the 
accomplishment of his designs. 

In the first place, the apostles were all Gali- 
leans , — natives or inhabitants of the district of 
Galilee. Seven of them, Peter and Andrew, 
James and John, Philip, Bartholomew, and Mat- 
thew, are expressly stated in the Gospels to have 
belonged to the district of Galilee. The same is 
in the highest degree probable of all the rest, 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 189 

with the exception, perhaps, of Judas Iscariot. 
We find that the eleven, after Jesus had ascended 
into heaven before their sight, were thus spoken 
to by the two angels : " Ye men of Galilee, why 
stand ye gazing up into heaven?" And at the 
day of Pentecost, when they received the gift of 
tongues, the people who were present exclaimed, 
"Behold, are not all these who speak Galileans?" 
Indeed, so many of the first disciples of Christ 
were from Galilee, that they were all called Gali- 
leans at first, as we learn from contemporary his- 
torians. 

This country constituted the northern portion 
of Palestine ; and its people, though hardy and 
brave, were not much respected by the Jews of 
Jerusalem, who regarded them as illiterate and 
unpolished, and unworthy of producing a prophet. 
The Pharisees, reproving Nicodemus for the in- 
terest which he expressed in Jesus, said to him : 
" Art thou also of Galilee ? Search, and look ; 
for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." The very 
speech of the Galileans was a provincial dialect, 
and betrayed their remoteness from the capital ; 
as we have seen was the case with Peter in the 
palace of Caiaphas. In short they were looked 
down upon by the more cultivated, and, if I may 
use the epithet, Attic part of the nation, as a 
rude, unenlightened, Boeotian branch of the com- 
mon Jewish family. Jesus, though born in Beth- 



190 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

lehero, was brought up in Nazareth, which was 
the most despised town in this most despised 
province ; and therefore, in selecting Galileans to 
be his apostles, he selected those who were near- 
est to him, and with whom he was most familiar. 
And yet what materials were they for construct- 
ing and building up a new religion, which was 
to be the wonder, the beauty and glory, of the 
earth ! How little adapted they seem to be for 
their lofty destination ! They are the last men, 
these poor Galileans, the very last men, as we 
should suppose, to confound the learned, to resist 
the mighty, to convert the world. They do not 
seem to be made for such a work. There is no 
fitness in them to be instructors and reformers. 
Their very birthplace forbids it. The choice of 
them, therefore, to be the intimate disciples of 
Christ, and the founders of a new religious sys- 
tem, appears to me to be a mark of the Divine 
mission of Christ, and the Divine character and 
origin of Christianity. To my ear the language 
of it is this : The person who, undertaking to 
introduce a peculiar and original faith to the 
world, selected, or, as it would rather appear, 
took almost carelessly up, his associates and 
confidential coadjutors, from his own neighbor- 
hood, from his own kindred, from the shores 
of a lake, from the streets of a village, from be- 
fore his own door-stone, instead of seeking out 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 191 

the learned and the powerful from among the 
Pharisees and chief men of the nation, must have 
set out in his work with the assurance that there 
was a Power and a Wisdom above, which could 
and would supply every deficiency among his 
followers ; and the event proved that the defi- 
ciency was supplied from a Divine, all-sufficient, 
and only sufficient Source. 

These Galileans were also poor. Four of them 
were certainly fishermen ; and others of their 
number were probably of the same profession. 
One was a publican, and of the inferior order of 
publicans.* They not only belonged to an un- 
dervalued province, but they were destitute of 
one of those means by which great ends are 
usually produced in the world. They were not, 
indeed, wretchedly destitute. They were above 
actual want, though they worked for their living ; 
and their dwellings, though humble, appear to 
have been comfortable. But they were far from 
being rich ; far from possessing any of that in- 

* It is a habit among many of the Fathers and other writers 
on these subjects, to assert that Matthew was rich, in order to 
magnify the sacrifice which he made in leaving all to follow 
Jesus. But there is not the least ground in Scripture for sup- 
posing that he formed an exception to the general poverty, or at 
any rate very moderate circumstances, of the other apostles. He 
was able, to be sure, to give a supper, at which some Pharisees 
were present, who were not likely to honor with their presence 
the house of a poor man; but he might have done this and yet 
not have been very rich. 



192 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

fluence and consequence which wealth so univer- 
sally commands. And yet, without wealth, they 
effected what no wealth could have brought to 
pass, and became of more consequence than ever 
invests princes. 

Besides these disadvantages, they were also un- 
learned. I do not mean that they : were rudely 
ignorant, or that they were unacquainted with 
the sacred literature of their nation ; but they 
were neither deeply versed in lore nor elegantly 
accomplished. They could not take a place 
among the well-educated portion of their coun- 
trymen. Their manner of expressing themselves 
at once betrayed this kind and degree of igno- 
rance to those who were more polished and better 
instructed. Thus the council of elders and rulers 
before which Peter and John were arraigned 
perceived that those apostles were " unlearned 
and ignorant men." And yet they were not so 
unlearned and ignorant that they did not, both 
of them, give to the Church and to the world 
writings in the Greek language, which, though 
not. exactly classical, were by no means despica- 
ble, even in their style. But their speech, pro- 
vincial and uncultivated as it was, sent conviction 
to the hearts of multitudes; and their writings, 
simple and unpolished as they were, threw a new 
and heavenly radiance over that dark world, have 
instructed ages and generations, and impart more 



CONCLUDING REMARKS.' 193 

real knowledge on the highest objects of thought 
than the greatest philosophers of antiquity had 
ever been able to impart. To my mind this is a 
remarkable fact, and one which does not easily 
admit of but one explanation. 

We may sum up the circumstances of the ex- 
ternal condition of the apostles, by saying, that 
they were what would now be called plain, sub- 
stantial men, in the lower walks of life. They 
were in a situation, not exceedingly depressed, 
and yet more remarkable for its humility than 
otherwise. Their education was only such a one 
as was usually bestowed on the common people 
of their nation, and in all probability consisted 
chiefly in a knowledge of the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament, which Scriptures they interpreted 
according to the instructions of the Rabbis, and 
the general expectations, opinions, and prejudices 
of their countrymen. 

With regard to their natural dispositions, tal- 
ents, and endowments of mind, there was among 
them the same assortment and variety of genius 
and character as would generally be found in the 
same number of men called together in a similar 
manner. Peter was irascible, impetuous, fervent, 
generous. John was amiable, affectionate, stead- 
fast. Thomas was honest and scrutinizing. 
Matthew was modest and sensible. James the 
Greater vvis active and aspiring. James the Less 

9 M 



194 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

was dignified in his sentiments and deportment. 
Some were forward, and some were retired. 
Some were eloquent, and others were silent. 
All but one appear to have been virtuous ; and 
even that one was not without his use. They 
all, with that single exception, combined harmo- 
niously in attachment to their Master and devo- 
tion to his cause. We may see in this fact, that 
Christianity was adapted to different dispositions, 
and received by different minds ; that it was not 
merely the enthusiastic who accepted and sup- 
ported it ; that it was judged by different tests ; 
that it was regarded through various optics ; that 
zeal embraced it ; that cool sense approved it ; 
that candor and honesty were convinced by it; 
that even disappointed avarice could report noth- 
ing against it. We see too in this fact an in- 
stance of the truth, which is at once so obvious 
and so little regarded, that a variety of genius and 
disposition is in accordance with the designs of 
Providence in its most important operations with 
human instruments, as well as in the daily and 
social business of the world ; and that a character 
is by no means to be despised because its qualities 
are not shining and striking. There are different 
parts to be performed, requiring different powers 
and capacities ; and he who achieves his part, 
though it be a silent and undistinguished one, is 
a good servant. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 195 

We are told much, in the writings of the New 
Testament, of the words and actions of Simon 
Peter ; but little or nothing of those of Simon 
Zelotes and Bartholomew ; and yet these latter 
may have accomplished tasks which were neces- 
sary to the progress of the great work, but which 
would not have suited the peculiar capacity of 
Peter. They may have reached minds which he 
could not touch ; they may have performed duties, 
subordinate indeed, but still necessary, such as 
he was not gifted to perform. Each apostle takes 
his own place, and stands easily and naturally in 
it ; neither stretching after what was above, nor 
contemning what was below him. In this in- 
stance, as well as in others, we may derive a 
lesson from them. 

In another point of view, the company of the 
apostles presents us with a spectacle which, 
though it may not be a very instructive, is cer- 
tainly a pleasing one. Within their common fra- 
ternity there were no less than three distinct bands 
of natural brethren. Peter and Andrew were 
brothers ; John and James the Greater were 
brothers ; and so also were James the Less, Jude 
or Thaddeus, and Simon Zelotes. With the ties 
of a common faith, of a common toil, and a com- 
mon danger, were thus beautifully blended the 
ties of consanguinity and domestic affection ; and 
a texture of harmonious coloring was completed 



196 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

in this companionship, such as is seldom woven 
on earth. The three brethren last named were 
also near relations of Jesus himself. The reflec- 
tions which are readily suggested by this cir- 
cumstance are, that our Saviour was beloved at 
home as well as abroad ; and that the familiarity 
of relationship did not impair the respect in which 
he was held as a master and teacher. We see 
also in this fact another cause of his love for 
his disciples, and of their love for him, — a cause 
which is far from diminishing our reverence for 
him, or our interest in them. They were not 
strangers to each other ; they were not brought 
together merely by the attractions of sympathy, 
or the demands of a great work. They were not 
countrymen only ; they were neighbors, part- 
ners, early acquaintances ; they were more, for 
they were kinsmen, with the mutual attachments 
of kindred ; and they go about on their labors 
before us, a more social, united, confidential, 
and interesting group, than if there had been 
no family bonds to strengthen and adorn their 
union. 

Let us next view the apostles as authors, and 
as subjects of history. I should wonder at the 
state of that man's affections who could read the 
Gospels, two of which were written by apostles, 
without being struck by the exceeding modesty 
and self-forgetfulness of the disciples, and their 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 197 

absorbing attention to one individual, their ven- 
erated and beloved Master. There are no vaunts 
in those sacred histories ; no instances of open 
or disguised egotism. When the writer speaks 
of his fellow-disciples, he relates with the utmost 
simplicity their faults, and prejudices, and want 
of faith, as well as the better parts of their char- 
acters. And he speaks of his Master, too, with 
equal simplicity, but with how much greater fre- 
quency and devotion ! He brings every other 
person, every other thing, he brings himself, under 
perfect subordination to this main subject of his 
narrative. He does this, not artfully and inten- 
tionally, but unavoidably ; from feeling, from 
impulse, from the conviction that there is but one 
individual of whom he is giving an account ; and 
if others are mentioned, they are mentioned be- 
cause they are in some manner connected with 
that person. If Jesus had occasion to praise one 
of his disciples, the evangelist records the fact 
without envy ; if that disciple, or any other one 
is rebuked, he relates it without evasion or excuse. 
He keeps himself to the sayings and actions of 
his Master, as to his chief concern. He indulges 
in no inferences, no moral reflections, no expres- 
sion of his own views or feelings ; he writes pure 
history, simple narrative; and on all occasions 
he tells, without reserve and without suspicion, 
the plain truth ; we see and feel that he does ; 



198 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

there is an honesty about every relation which 
cannot be mistaken or suspected. And we see 
and feel, too, that the chief personage of the 
history is not brought out into such entire relief, 
into such a concentration of light, by any effort 
or design on the part of the writer, but only and 
wholly on account of the unapproached sub- 
limity and intrinsic superiority of the character 
itself. 

There is one other circumstance in the lives 
of the apostles which I am bound to notice for 
the sake of its singularity and importance ; and 
then I will leave them to the meditations and 
further inquiries of my readers. I have several 
times had occasion to speak of the national pre- 
judices of these men, and the difficulty which 
they had to comprehend the entire spirituality 
of their Master's system and kingdom, and to 
admit into their associations with the Jewish 
Messiah and Saviour the ideas of poverty, lowli- 
ness, suffering, and death. Attached as they were 
to him by all the ties which we have enumer- 
ated, we see that when he was actually appre- 
hended by his enemies, they all forsook him and 
fled ; that they did not return to him ; and that 
on the mount where he was crucified there was 
but one of them who appeared to witness the 
death of their Master and kinsman, and the ex- 
tinction of all their hopes. The event was one 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 199 

for which they were wholly unprepared. It con- 
founded them. Their preconceived opinions were 
so strong, that when Jesus had before spoken to 
them of his death, they shut up their ears and 
their eyes, they would not understand him. We 
do not find a single hint in the Gospels that they 
ever did understand him. The event itself was 
a blow which at once enlightened and convinced 
them, and scattered them abroad also, like sheep 
without a shepherd. This is one scene. 

And now let us behold another, which imme- 
diately succeeds it. Not a great many days 
elapse when we find these very men, disheart- 
ened, disappointed, terrified, and dispersed as 
they had been, all gathered together again with 
one accord, fully recovered from all their depres- 
sion, and with a settled resolution stamped on all 
their demeanor, which never marked them be- 
fore, even while their Master was with them, to 
lead, combine, and encourage them. The cata- 
logue of their names is full, with one vacancy 
only, which they immediately supply. They 
begin to preach the doctrines of a crucified 
Saviour, and we hear no more of their earthly 
notions of his kingdom. Their crude ideas and 
temporal hopes have, in a few days, vanished 
away. They preach Christianity, simply and 
purely. They gather to themselves thousands of 
converts. They are persecuted, imprisoned, 



200 CONCLUDING EEMARKS. 

threatened ; they behold one of their number soon 
cut off with the sword ; they are . surrounded by 
enemies and temptations ; and yet they never 
hesitate nor falter ; no, not the weakest of them ; 
there is not a single defection from their reunited 
brotherhood. They go through country after 
country, and toil after toil, laying down their 
lives, one after another, for the holy truth, and 
they leave disciples behind them everywhere, to 
teach, and dare, and suffer, and do, and die, as 
they did. 

Now what is the cause of all this, and how is 
it to be accounted for ? Unbelievers may have 
many explanations to give, and they may be in- 
genious ones. I have but one, and it is a simple 
one. It is, that their crucified Master rose from 
the dead as they have told us he did ; that he 
instructed them as they have told us he did; 
and that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, was sent 
from the Father, according to his promise, to 
enlighten and sustain them. In short, I consider 
the conduct of the apostles, at and after the 
death of Jesus, as perhaps the strongest proof of 
the reality of his glorious resurrection. If he 
rose from the dead and appeared to them, and 
instructed and confirmed them, I can account 
for the sudden change in their characters, and 
for their subsequent knowledge and perseverance 
and boldness and success. If he rose not from 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 201 

the dead, I cannot account for those things ; and 
the whole subject remains to me a deep historical 
mystery. 

Simple, honest, excellent men ! raised up by 
Providence for wonderful ends by wonderful 
means ! Your lives, unadorned as they are, and 
comprehended in a few plain words, are yet alone 
among the lives of men, — alone in the varieties 
and contrasts of their fortunes, alone in the 
multitude and importance of their consequences. 
We should be senseless if we did not perceive 
the influence which you have exerted on the 
character and opinions of mankind. We should 
be thankless if we did not acknowledge the 
benefits of that influence, and bless God that we 
live to know and feel them. And we humbly 
pray to God, the universal Father, the Source of 
all excellence and truth, that our fidelity to our 
common Master may be like yours; that our 
perseverance in executing his commands may 
be like yours ; and that like yours may be our 
courage and constancy, if we should ever be 
called on to sacrifice comfort, worldly consider- 
ation, or life itself, to duty, conscience, and 
faith. 



9* 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS 



SAINT ANDREW'S DAY. 

November 30. 

Collect. Almighty God, who didst give such 
grace unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, that 
he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus 
Christ and followed him without delay ; grant 
unto us all, that we, being called by thy holy 
word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently 
to fulfil thy holy commandments, through the 
same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

Who leads the glorious company, 

The Apostles' sainted band ? 
First on the roll of duty see 

The holy Andrew stand. 

He first the promised Saviour sought 

Within his low abode ; 
And whom he found, to others taught, 

The Christ and Lamb of God. 






204 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

And he, among the first, the call 
, To tend his Lord obeyed ; 

Forsook his ship, his home, his all ; 
And followed where he led. 

" Fisher of men," by night, by day, 

His ready toils he set ; 
Intent to close his captive prey 

Within the Gospel net. 

Nor scrupled he to yield his breath, 

By many a labor tried, 
And die, with willing mind, the death 

By which his Master died. 



And now his name with service meet, 

Leads on the sacred year, 
And bids the Church prepare to greet 

The Saviour's Advent near. 

Bp. Mant. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 205 



SAINT THOMAS'S DAY. 

December 21. 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who 
for the more confirmation of the faith didst suffer 
thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy 
Son's resurrection ; grant us so perfectly, and 
without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus 
Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be 
reproved. Hear us, Lord, through the same 
Jesus Christ, in whose name we ascribe unto 
thee all honor and glory, now and forevermore. 
Amen. 

HYMN. 

I hear the glorious Sufferer tell, 
How on his cross he vanquished hell, 

And all the powers beneath ; 
Transported and inspired, my tongue 
Attempts his triumphs in a song ; 
" How has the serpent lost his sting, and where 's thy victory, 
death ? " 

But when he shows his hand and heart, 
With those dear prints of dying smart, 
He sets my soul on fire ; 



206 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

Not the beloved John could rest 
With more delight upon that breast, 
Nor Thomas pry into those wounds with more intense de- 
sire. 

Kindly he opens me his ear, 

And bids me pour my sorrow there, 

And tell him all my pains. 
Thus while I ease my burdened heart, 
In every woe he bears a part, 
His arms embrace me, and his hand my drooping head sus- 
tains. 

Watts. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 207 



SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. 

December 27. 

Collect. Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to 
cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, 
that it, being enlightened by the doctrine of thy 
blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John, may 
so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at 
length attain to the light of everlasting life, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

Among the planets heavenly bright, 
Which round the Sun of glory shine ; 

No orb emits a purer light, 

A holier radiance, John, than thine. 

Apostle thou of Christ the Lord ; 

Prophet of scenes to come decreed ; 
Historian of the incarnate Word ; 

Martyr in will, if not in deed. 

Yet by another name we deem 

Thy claim to high renown approved, 

A name, of equal praise the theme, 
" Disciple, by thy Master loved." 



208 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

Be ours to mark His portrait fair 
Whom thy recording pencil drew ; 

Be ours to mark thy faithful care, 
To his divine commandments true ; 

To note thy life ; to see thee fling 
The beams of sacred truth abroad ; 

And soar with thee on eagle wing, 

And view unblamed the throne of God. 

And may our faith, blest Saint, like thine 
By love to God and man be proved ; 

That we in some degree may shine, 
" Disciples by our Master loved." 

Bp. Mant. 



ANOTHER. 

"Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus 
saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? follow 
thou me." John xxi. 21, 22. 

" Lord, and what shall this man do ? " — 
Ask'st thou, Christian, for thy friend ? 

If his love for Christ be true, 
Christ hath told thee of his end. 

This is he whom God approves ; 

This is he whom Jesus loves. 

Ask not of him more than this ; 

Leave it in his Saviour's breast, 
Whether, early called to bliss, 

He in vouth shall find his rest, 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 209 

Or armed in his station wait 
Till his Lord be at the gate ; — 

Whether in his lonely course, 

(Lonely, not forlorn) he stay, 
Or with love's supporting force 

Cheat the toil and cheer the way ; 
Leave it all in his high hand, 
Who doth hearts as streams command.* 

Gales from heaven, if so he will, 

Sweeter melodies can wake, 
On the lonely mountain rill, 

Than the meeting waters make. 
Who hath the Father and the Son 
May be left, — but not alone. 

Sick or healthful, slave or free, 
Wealthy, or despised and poor, — 

What is that to him or thee, 
So his love to Christ endure ? 

When the shore is won at last, 

Who will count the billows past ? 

Only, since our souls will shrink 

At the touch of natural grief, 
When our earthly loved ones sink, 

Lend us, Lord, thy sure relief; 
Patient hearts their pain to see, 
And thy grace to follow thee. 

Keble. 

* " The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of 
water; he turneth it whithersoever he will." Prov xxi. 1. 



210 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



SAINT MATTHIAS'S DAY. 

February 24. 

Collect. Almighty God, who into the 
place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faith- 
ful servant Matthias to be of the number of the 
twelve apostles ; grant that thy Church, being 
always preserved from false apostles, may be or- 
dered and guided by faithful and true pastors, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

Who is God's chosen priest ? 
He who on Christ stands waiting day and night, 
Who traced his holy steps, nor ever ceased, 

From Jordan banks to Bethphage height ; — 

Who hath learned lowliness 
From his Lord's cradle, patience from his cross ; 
Whom poor men's eyes and hearts consent to bless ; 

To whom, for Christ, the world is loss ; — 

Who both in agony 
Hath seen him, and in glory ; and in both 
Owned him divine, and yielded, nothing loath, 

Body and soul to live and die, 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 211 

In witness of his Lord, 
In humble following of his Saviour dear. 
This is the man to wield the unearthly sword, 

Warring unharmed with sin and fear. 

But who can e'er suffice — 
What mortal — for this more than angel's task, 
Winning or losing souls, thy life-blood's price ? 

The gift were too divine to ask, 

But thou hast made it sure 
By thy dear promise to thy Church and Bride, 
That thou, on earth, wouldst aye with her endure, 

Till earth to heaven be purified. 

Keble. 



A GOOD PRIEST. 

Give me the priest these graces shall possess ; — 

Of an ambassador the just address ; 

A father's tenderness ; a shepherd's care ; 

A leader's courage, which the cross can bear ; 

A* ruler's awe ; a watchman's wakeful eye ; 

A pilot's skill, the helm in storms to ply ; 

A fisher's patience ; and a laborer's toil ; 

A guide's dexterity to disembroil ; 

A prophet's inspiration from above ; 

A teacher's knowledge, — and a Saviour's love. 

Bp. Kenn. 



212 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



SALNT PHILIP AND SAINT JAMES'S* DAY. 
May 1. 

Collect. Almighty God, whom truly to 
know is everlasting life ; grant us perfectly to 
know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the 
truth, and the life, that following the steps of thy 
holy Apostles Saint Philip and Saint James, we 
may steadfastly walk in the way that leadeth to 
eternal life, through the same thy Son Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

Holy Jesus, Saviour blest 
As, by passion strong possest, 
Through this world of sin we stray, 
Thou to guide us art the way. 

Holy Jesus, when the night 
Of error blinds our clouded sight, 
Round the cheering day to throw, 
Saviour, then the truth art thou. 

Holy Jesus, when our power 
Fails us in temptation's hour, 

* James the Less. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 213 

All unequal to the strife ; 
Thou to aid us art the life. 

Who would reach his heavenly home ; 
Who would to the Father come ; 
Who the Father's presence see ; 
Jesus, he must come by thee. 

Bp. Mant 






i 



214 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST'S DAY. 

June 24. 

Collect. Almighty God, by whose provi- 
dence thy servant John Baptist was wonderfully 
born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son, 
our Saviour, by preaching repentance ; make us 
so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we 
may truly repent according to his preaching ; 
and, after his example, constantly speak the truth, 
boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the 
truth's sake ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

HYMN. 

Hark through the lonely waste, 

By foot of man unpaced, 
" Prepare the "way," a warning voice resounds ! 

" Level the opposing hill, 

The hollow valley fill, 
Make straight the crooked, smooth the rugged grounds ; 
Prepare a passage, — form it plain and broad ; 
And through the desert make a highway for our God ! " 

Thine, Baptist, was the cry, 
In ages long gone by, 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 215 

Heard in clear accents by the prophet's ear ; 

As if 't were thine to wait, 

And with imperial state 
Herald some Eastern monarch's proud career ; 
Who thus might march his host in full array, 
And speed through trackless wilds his unresisted way. 

But other task hadst thou 

Than lofty hills to bow, 
Make straight the crooked, the rough places plain. 

Thine was the harder part 

To smooth the human heart, 
The wilderness where sin had fixed his reign ; 
To make deceit his mazy wiles forego, 
Bring down high-vaulting pride, and lay ambition low. 

Such, Baptist, was thy care, 

That no obstruction there 
Might check the progress of the King of kings ; 

But that a clear highway 

Might welcome the array 
Of heavenly graces which his presence brings ; 
And where repentance had prepared the road, 
There faith might enter in, and love to man and God. 

Bp. Mant. 



216 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



SAINT PETER'S DAY. 
June 29. 



Collect. Almighty God, who by thy Son 
Jesus Christ didst give to thy Apostle Saint Peter 
many excellent gifts, and commandedst him ear- 
nestly to feed thy flock ; make, we beseech thee, 
all pastors diligently to preach thy holy word, 
and the people obediently to follow the same, 
that they may receive the crown of everlasting 
glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



HYMN. 



Lord ! when thy Peter, weak in faith, 
By terror too severely tried, 

Failed in thine hour of threatened death 
And thee forsook, and thee denied ; — 



When thrice his ear the challenge heard, 
And thrice his tongue renounced thy name, 

And each sad time the recreant word 
More loud and more impassioned came ; — 

One look from thee his fault reproved, 
And made his slumbering conscience start ; 

One look from thee, so dearly loved, 
Spoke daggers to his bleeding heart ; 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 217 

And sent him forth a prey to grief, 

Unheeded all his former fears, 
To seek in solitude relief 

From bitter and repentant tears. 

Lord ! when by human frailty led, 

We pass thy gracious warning by, 
Prone as we are awry to tread, 

And thee forsake, and thee deny ; — 

Grant us to feel the keen rebuke, 

By conscience, faithful guardian, sent, 
As if we saw thy pitying look, 

When on thy frail Apostle bent. 

That pitying look ! O may it melt 

Our hearts in penitential showers ! 
May Peter's grief by us be felt, 

And O, be his forgiveness ours ! 

Bp. Mant. 



ANOTHER. 

; When Herod would have brought him out, the same night Peter was sleep- 
ing." Acts xii. 6. 

Thou thrice denied, yet thrice beloved, 
Watch by thine own forgiven friend ; 

In sharpest perils faithful proved. 
Let his soul love thee to the end. 

The prayer is heard, — else why so deep 

His slumber on the eve of death ? 
And wherefore smiles he in his sleep 

As one who drew celestial breath ? 
10 . 



218 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

He loves and is beloved again, — 
Can his soul choose but be at rest ? 

Sorrow hath fled away, and Pain 
Dares not invade the guarded nest. 

He dearly loves and not alone : 

For his winged thoughts are soaring high 

Where never yet frail heart was known 
To breathe in vain affection's sigh. 

He loves and weeps, — but more than tears 
Have sealed thy welcome and his love,-— 

One look lives in him, and endears 
Crosses and wrongs where'er he rove : 

That gracious chiding look, thy call 
To win him to himself and thee, 

Sweetening the sorrow of his fall, 
Which else were rued too bitterly. 

Even through the veil of sleep it shines, 
The memory of that kindly glance ; — 

The Angel watching by divines 

And spares awhile his blissful trance. 

Or haply to his native lake 
His vision wafts him back, to talk 

With Jesus, ere his flight he take, 
As in that solemn evening walk, 

When to the bosom of his friend, 

The Shepherd, he whose name is Good, 

Did his dear lambs and sheep commend, 
Both bought and nourished with his blood 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 219 

Then laid on him the inverted tree, 

Which, firm embraced with heart and arm, 

Might cast o'er hope and memory, 
O'er life and death, its awful charm. 

With brightening heart he bears it on, 
His passport through the eternal gates, 

To his sweet home, — so nearly won, 
He seems, as by the door he waits, 

The unexpressive notes to hear 

Of angel song and angel motion, 
Rising and falling on the ear 

Like waves in Joy's unbounded ocean. 

His dream is changed, — the Tyrant's voice 
Calls to that last of glorious deeds, — 

But as he rises to rejoice, 
Not Herod but an Angel leads. 

He dreams he sees a lamp flash bright, 

Glancing around his prison room, — 
But 't is a gleam of heavenly light 

That fills up all the ample gloom. 

The flame that in a few short years 

Deep through the chambers of the dead 

Shall pierce, and dry the fount of tears, 
Is waving o'er his dungeon-bed. 

Touched he upstarts, — his chains unbind, — 
Through darksome vault, up massy stair, 

His dizzy, doubting footsteps wind 
To freedom and cool moonlight air. 



220 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

Then all himself, all joy and calm, 
Though for a while his hand forego, 

Just as it touched, the martyr's palm, 
He turns him to his task below ; 

The pastoral staff, the keys of heaven, 
To wield awhile in gray-haired might, 

Then from his cross to spring forgiven, 
And follow Jesus out of sight. 



Keble. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 221 



SAINT JAMES'S* DAY. 
July 26. 

Collect. Grant, merciful God, that as thine 
holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and 
all that he had, without delay was obedient unto 
the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed 
him ; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal 
affections, may be evermore ready to follow thy 
holy commandments, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

And couldst thou, James, to win the meed 
Of glory for his saints decreed, 

Thy Saviour's cup of sorrow taste ? 
And couldst thou bear above thee spread 
The waves baptismal, dark and dread, 

Which o'er thy Saviour past ? 

Thou couldst : such aid his Spirit lent ! 
The stripes, the bonds, the imprisonment, 

The scornful look, the taunting word, 
The angry council's stern decree, 
The tyrant's rage and cruelty, 

And last the fatal sword : 

* The Greater. 



222 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

These came in turn ; and then thy death ! 
O thou, to wear a martyr's wreath 

The first of all thy brotherhood ! 
First of thy Saviour's chosen train, 
Like him the cup of woe to drain, 

Like him baptized in blood ! 

We dare not rend the veil aside 

By which the All-knowing wills to hide 

The secrets of the unseen world ; 
But to our vision it should seem, 
Might we without irreverence deem 

Of that dark veil unfurled; 

Should seem that thou wert there to see, 
O James, O son of Zebedee, 

And he, the favored of your Lord, 
Martyr with thee at least in will ; 
Together throned on God's high hill 

Beside your King adored. 

For not in vain his word was given 

That ye who have through sufferings striven, 

For him and for his Gospel known, 
With him shall in his glory dwell, 
And judge the tribes of Israel, 

Throned by Messiah's throne. 

Nor vain the word, that whosoe'er 
Shall the Messiah's name prefer 

To houses, parents, children, wife, 
Shall hundred-fold by him be blest, 
Be welcomed to his Father's rest, 

And dwell in endless life. 



Bp. Mant. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 223 



SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. 

August 24. 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, 
who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew 
grace truly to believe and to preach thy word ; 
grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church to love 
that word which he believed, and both to preach 
and receive the same, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

" Behold, in whom no guile I find. 

An Israelite indeed ! " 
Nathanael, thus thy virtuous mind 

Did Israel's sovereign read. 

A guileless heart ! what fairer scene 

In all this world below 
Does nature's loveliness contain, 

Or God's creation show ? 

Fair are the snow-wreaths that infold 

Yon Alpine mountain's head ; 
Fair is the stream, all crystal, rolled 

Clear o'er its pebbly bed ; 



224 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

Fair is the star of evening bright, 
A gem in heaven's blue zone ; 

And fair the moonlight's robe of white 
O'er earth's green surface thrown ; 

But Alpine snow, nor crystal stream, 

Can pure delight impart, 
Nor moon, nor evening planet's gleam, 

To match the guileless heart. 

For these material works of God 

Of him memorials stand, 
And tell the Maker's power abroad, 

The wonders of his hand: 

But guileless truth and innocence, 

By God to men consigned, 
Reflect his moral excellence, 

And image of his mind. 

Bp. Manx. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 225 



SAINT MATTHEW'S DAY. 
September 21. 

Collect. Almighty God, who by thy blessed 
Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custom, 
to be an apostle and evangelist ; grant us grace 
to forsake all covetous desires, and inordinate love 
of riches, and to follow the same thy Son Jesus 
Christ our Lord, who liveth. and reigneth with 
thee, world without end. Amen. 

HYMN. 

Prepare the feast ! the viands bring, 

Heap high the festal board ! 
The subject welcomes Israel's king ; 

The follower greets his Lord. 

But who is he, the host, whose care 

Provides the costly feast ? 
And who are they assembled there 

Around the heavenly guest ? 

'T is Matthew, 't is the publican ; 

The favored host is he 
Who sat, a much-despised man, 

Beside Tiberias' sea. 

10* o 






226 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

And they, the guests assembled round, 

They boast no better name ; 
One in disgraceful union found, 

Allied to sin and shame. 

holy Jesus, and are these 
Associates meet for thee ? 

Is this the host thy soul to please, 
And this the company ? 

" Not to the righteous was I sent ; 
Not to the whole I cry ; 

1 call the sinner to repent ; 

The sick man's health am I. 

" For them my glory I resigned ; 

For them endure the grave ; 
I came the wandering sheep to find, 

The perishing to save." 

" Shepherd of Israel, Saviour dear ! 
Whose voice thy duteous sheep 
Safe in thy fold delighted hear, 
And to thy pasture keep ; 

Repentant, lo ! to thee we turn, 

To thee for health we pray ; 
Give us what thou reveal'st to learn, 

And what thou bidd'st obey. 

Bp. Manx. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



227 



ANOTHER. 

Ye hermits blest, ye holy maids, 
The nearest heaven on earth, 
Who talk with God in shadowy glades, 

Free from rude care and mirth ; 
To whom some viewless teacher brings 
The secret lore of rural things, 
The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale, 
The whispers from above, that haunt the twilight vale ; 

Say, when in pity ye have gazed 

On the wreathed smoke afar, 
That o'er some town, like mist upraised, 

Hung, hiding sun and star, 
Then as you turned your weary eye 
To the green earth and open sky, 
Were ye not fain to doubt how Faith could dwell 
Amid that dreary glare, in this world's citadel ? 

But Love 's a flower that will not die 

For lack of leafy screen, 
And Christian Hope can cheer the eye 

That ne'er saw vernal green. 
Then be sure that Love can bless 
Even in this crowded wilderness, 
Where ever-moving myriads seem to say, 
Go — thou art naught to us, nor we to thee — away ! 

There are in this loud stirring tide 

Of human care and crime, 
With whom the melodies abide 

Of the everlasting chime ; 






228 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

Who carry music in their heart 
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, 
Plying their daily task with busier feet 
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat. 

How sweet to them, in such brief rest 

As thronging cares afford, 
In thought to wander fancy-blest, 
To where their gracious Lord, 
In vain, to win proud Pharisees, 
Spake, and was heard by fell disease, — 
But not in vain, beside yon breezy lake, 
Bade the meek Publican his gainful seat forsake. 

At once he rose, and left his gold ; 

His treasure and his heart 
Transferred, where he shall safe behold 

Earth and her idols part ; 
While he beside his endless store 
Shall sit, and floods unceasing pour 
Of Christ's true riches o'er all time and space, 
First angel of his Church, first steward of his grace. 

Nor can ye not delight to think 
Yv r here he vouchsafed to eat, 
How the pure Master did not shrink 

From touch of sinner's meat ; 
What worldly hearts and hearts impure 
Went with him through the rich man's door ; 
That we might learn of him lost souls to love, 
And view his least and worst with hope to meet above. 

These gracious lines shed Gospel light 
On Mammon's gloomiest cells, 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 229 

As on some city's cheerless night 
The tide of sunrise swells, 

Till tower, and dome, and bridge-way proud 

Are mantled with a golden cloud, 
And to wise hearts this certain hope is given, 
" No mist that man may raise shall hide the eye of Heaven." 

And oh ! if even on Babel shine 

Such gleams of Paradise, 
Should not their peace be peace divine, 

Who day by day arise 
To look on clearer heavens and scan 
The work of God untouched by man ? 
Shame on us who about us Babel bear, 
And live in Paradise, as if God was not there ! 

Keble. 



230 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



SAINT SIMON AND SAINT JUDE'S DAY. 

October 28. 

Collect. Almighty God, who hast built thy 
Church upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head 
corner-stone, grant us so to be joined together in 
unity of spirit by their doctrine, ihat we may be 
made a holy temple acceptable unto thee, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

As at the first, by two and two 
His herald saints the Saviour sent 

To soften hearts like morning dew, 
Where he to shine in mercy meant ; 

So evermore he deems his name 
Best honored and his way prepared, 

When watching by his altar-flame 
He sees his servants duly paired. 

He loves when age and youth are met, 
Fervent old age and youth serene, 

Their high and low in concord set 
For sacred song, joy's golden mean. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 231 

He loves when some clear soaring mind 

Is drawn by mutual piety 
To simple souls and unrefined, 

Who in life's shadiest covert lie. 

Or if perchance a saddened heart 
That once was gay and felt the spring, 

Cons slowly o'er its altered part, 
In sorrow and remorse to sing, 

Thy gracious care will send that way 

Some spirit full of glee, yet taught 
To bear the sight of dull decay, 

And nurse it with all pitying thought ; 

Cheerful as soaring lark, and mild - 
As evening blackbird's full-toned lay, 

When the relenting sun has smiled 
Bright through a whole December day. 

These are the tones to brace and cheer 

The lonely watcher of the fold, 
When nights are dark, and foemen near, 

When visions fade and hearts grow cold. 

How timely then a comrade's song 
Comes floating on the mountain air, 

And bids thee yet be bold and strong, — 
Fancy may die, but Faith is there. 

Keble. 



232 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



ANOTHER. 



Father, gracious Father, hear 
Faith's effectual fervent prayer ; 
Hear, and our petitions seal, 
Let us now the answer feel. 
Still our fellowship increase ; 
Knit us in the bond of peace ; 
Join our new-born spirits, join 
Each to each, and all to thine. 

Build us in one body up, 
Called in one high calling's hope ; 
One the Spirit whom we claim, 
One the pure baptismal flame, 
One the faith, and common Lord, 
One the Father lives adored, 
Over, through, and in us all, 
God incomprehensible. 

Wesley. 



THE END. 



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